6 AWP Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 October 18–24, 2019
RETURNING TO CITI FIELD
THIS WINTER
theworldsfare.nyc
Enjoy Championship Dumplings and Himalayan
Home Cooking at Nepali Bhanchha Ghar
“Authentic Nepali Food & Asian Fusion,”
reads the small print in green beneath the
name of Chef Yamuna “Bimla” Shrestha’s
four-year old temple to Nepali gastronomy.
The menu features many dishes including
musky goat sukuti—an air dried jerky—and
chicken choila, an appetizer that gets its
incendiary heat from red chilies and ginger.
That chicken along with other spicy nibbles
like Wai Wai sandheko—crushed instant noodles
shot through with tomato, garlic, onion,
and green chile—is a popular snack for the
men who gather nightly in the restaurant’s
downstair’s dining room to sip BYO bottles of
whiskey.
I love all those dishes, but for now we’re
going to examine one that’s a cold weather
staple for me, jhol momo. It consists of the
dumplings beloved throughout the Himalayan
diaspora, in a chicken broth that gets
its hue from tomatoes, and its warming flavor
from green chili, garlic, and ginger. I like to
get them filled with chicken.
Shrestha’s jhol momo are so good that
come winter I eat them at least once a week.
In fact they’re award winning. For the past
three years they’ve taken top honors at the
Momo Crawl, a yearly event that brings hundreds
to the hood every fall to vote for “Best
Momo in Town.” The prize, a yak hide leather
wrestling belt with a gilded momo in the center,
adorns the upstairs dining room/kitchen.
“Can Bhanchha Ghar be defeated? Are they
the Joey Chestnut of the Momo Crawl?,” asks
Nepali Bhanchha Ghar lies in the heart of Jackson aka Himalayan Heights.
Jeff Orlick founder of the Momo Crawl, comparing
Shrestha and her team to the competitive
eater who has won the Nathan’s Famous
annual July Fourth hot dog eating contest 12
times. “You can bet there are plenty who want
to bring the Momo Belt back to Tibetan soil.”
There are of course other things to eat
besides momo at the restaurant whose name
means “Nepali Eating House.” Chief among
them is the thali, a platter bearing a mound of
rice and the protein of your choice—goat and
goat jerky are both excellent as is the chicken
curry—ringed by various tiny heaps of pickles,
including bitter melon and radish, and a
bowl of buttery lentil daal. It’s a feast that’s
meant to be eaten South Asian style with
one’s hands by taking small amounts of rice
and mixing them with the various flavorful
components. Run out of rice? The server will
be around soon enough to offer you more.
Eating with one’s hands is a skill that doesn’t
come easy to Westerners, including this one.
A more manageable alternative to the ricebased
thali is one featuring dhedo, a greyish
blob of nutty tasting buckwheat and millet
dough, that’s easy and fun to eat with one’s
fingers.
For dessert there’s milky rich chai and
tsel roti. The name may call to mind a South
Asian bread, but it’s actually a doughnut
made from a batter of rice and ghee. The
golden nubbly crust gives way to a sweet
interior, a perfect finish to a Nepali repast.
74-06 37th Rd, Jackson Heights,
NY 11372
Phone: (718) 806-1409
BY JOE DISTEFANO
As the Culinary King of Queens,
I’m so very fortunate to live in
the most diverse and delicious
destination in all of New York
City. Really I’m not royalty
though, I’m an ambassador, and
a hungry one at that. Today, we
visit Nepal via Jackson Heights,
a neighborhood I have taken to
calling Himalayan Heights due
to the profusion of Tibetan and
Nepali eateries. There’s none
quite like Nepali Bhanchha Ghar,
a two-level love letter to the
country’s cuisine.
The award-winning chicken jhol momo in a spicy
tomato broth are pure Nepali comfort food.
The restaurant has won the Momo Crawl three
years in a row.
Chef Yamuna “Bimla” Shrestha fries up a
batch of goat.
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