Nepalese restaurants bring delicious meals to Baltimore County
A number of local restaurants' standout dishes are based on dumplings, sauces, and simple ingredients. Baltimore County boasts one of the country’s largest Nepalese populations.
This is very good
news if you like to eat because there are many restaurants that specialize in
the cuisine. Nepalese food is flavorful, nutritious, filling — and won’t break
the bank. It is suitable for
vegetarians, does not favor as many rich sauces as cuisines from India and
Pakistan that are similar to it, and its soup-based specialties are ideal for
the cold weather. Plus, much of it cooks slowly in clay pots, which means the
longer the ingredients steep in the spices, the better the food tastes. An excellent dish to use up leftovers. You
can still order samosas and saags and try a few Nepalese specialties at most
Nepalese restaurants that also serve Indian fare. Like Dal Bhat Tarkari, which
translates to lentils, vegetables, and rice (bhat). Nepalese food is typically
less bread-forward and less spicy than Indian food. At one Nepali restaurant, I
ordered what I thought were samosas, and they came with a delicious filling but
no crispy wanton wrapped around them.
In addition, thukpa,
a filling noodle soup, bamboo shoots, and fermented vegetables are featured in
Nepali cuisine. Another staple is dhido, a sticky porridge made out of millet
served on a plate with curries and pickled vegetables for dipping. Nepalis cook with millet because it was once
cheaper and healthier than rice, but these days, rice has become so ubiquitous
that now diners expect it with entrees and the millet porridge feels like a
delicacy, said Nara Khakurel, a Nepali immigrant who owns the Coffee Talk Cafe
in Towson.
The local Nepalese
restaurants ask for spice level preference.
Khakurel said that’s to customize each dish. He also said Nepalese dishes consider the
whole rhythm of a meal. Entrees include
fermented vegetables to aid in digestion; desserts include sweet yogurts to
cool any spicy bites.
Every food culture
seems to have a national dish that involves some kind of meat or vegetable
ensconced in some kind of starch. This
is known as a kreplach in Jewish cuisine, a dumpling in Chinese cuisine,
ravioli in Italian cuisine, and pierogi in Polish cuisine. Momo is the
corresponding delicacy for Nepalese. Steamed or fried, wrapped around chicken
or buffalo meat, it is delicious on its own or submerged in a broth of
soybeans, lentils, or sauce. Khakurel
said that when he was a child in Nepal, the buffalo momo in sauce — called buff
momo johl — was a treat poorer families like his almost never enjoyed.
When my kids were
little, we would frequent Indian restaurants and let the kids order from the
Nepali side of the menu. Despite the
fact that my children now enjoy spicy food, I will likely continue to stick to
Nepali comfort foods at an Indian restaurant.
Comments
Post a Comment