12 AWP Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 December 20–26, 2019
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Take a Tasty Trek to Tibet via
Khampa Kitchen Inn
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 trek to
Tibet via Roosevelt Avenue to explore
the cuisine of Khampa Kitchen Inn, one
of the most unique Tibetan restaurants
in all of New York City.
“Feel and taste like home,” reads Khampa Kitchen Inn’s
motto, which graces the front of the menu at this spot
opened by Thupten Bachan and his fiancée, the chef Tashi
Dechen, last year. While that menu may first appear very
Tibetan with dishes like momo—the dumplings that are
ubiquitous in Himalayan Heights—and gyuma a rustic
blood sausage, the inn is unique because these innkeepers
hail from Tibet’s Kham region.
Paoze, a quintet of fluffy meat filled buns served
with a comforting split rice porridge and strips of
sonlabu, a pickled radish, is a traditional breakfast
in Kham, and in Jackson Heights too; the restaurant
opens at 10 a.m. The juicy buns flavored with black
pepper, chive, and garlic can be had filled with chicken,
pork, veggies or beef, but I recommend the latter. “I
used to eat it for breakfast as a kid, in Kham they use
yak meat,” says Bachan who can usually be found pouring
butter tea or in his antique shop filled with Tibetan
artifacts to the left of the restaurant’s entrance hallway.
Another traditional Kham specialty is the twice-fried
beef ribs flavored with chili,salt and Sichuan peppercorn.
Bachan says that Khampa Kitchen Inn is also unique
in that it is the only restaurant serving Lhasa Shaday, a
hearty plate of rice, potatoes and beef gone yellow from
turmeric. The whole lot is topped with dried chilies. Need
more spice? Avail yourself of the two homemade hot sauces:
a chili paste singing with the flavor of Sichuan peppercorns
or sepen, a fiery orange blend of chilies, ginger, and
Sichuan peppercorn.
It is not unusual to find a maroon robed Tibetan
monk or two tucking into a plate of Lhasa Shaday as
the Dalai Lama beams down from altar above the cash
register. “They want to come here because we have traditional
food. They feel like they have food from their
home,” Bachan says.
Khampa poethek, one of the best dishes is literally a
home food, traditionally found at family gatherings. “This
is a very joyful food for me,” Bachan says of the giant
domed meat pie filled with beef and spinach seasoned
with green onions, garlic, Sichuan peppercorn. There’s
also another flavor that I’ve never had in Tibetan food,
caraway seed. or gonyo as it’s called in Khampa. “It’s not
traditional without that,” Bachan says. Khampa poethek,
takes about a half an hour to make, but it’s well worth the
wait. The braided pie is served with the saucer shaped lid
cut open. Use it as a plate to present your guest of honor
with the first serving.
You won’t find it on the menu but for dessert there’s
bhatsa marku, a sweet Tibetan pasta served with brown
sugar and yak cheese. The little folded over bits of pasta
resemble the Italian cavatelli, so much so that some Tibetan
restaurant cooks have been known to cheat by using
that, but not Dechen, who makes the dough fresh. The
result is tangy and sweet and will make you feel at home
even if you’ve never been to Kham.
The Dalai Lama presides over the dining room from an altar set on high.
The chef, Tashi Dechen, preparing Khampa poethek, a giant meat pie traditionally eaten at
festive family gatherings.
porridge and pickled daikon are a typical
“Each Tibetan has a responsibility to
preserve their culture whether it’s food or the
language,” Bachan says when asked why he
and his fiancée opened the restaurant. In case
you’re wondering the beef momo, crescent
shaped dumplings that clearly show the chef’s
handiwork served a beef broth that’s been
cooked for 24 hours are excellent.
75-15 Roosevelt Ave.
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
Phone: (347) 507-0216
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