RETURNING TO CITI FIELD
THIS WINTER
theworldsfare.nyc
Enjoy Championship Dumplings and Himalayan
Home Cooking at Nepali Bhanchha Ghar
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.
“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
Jeff Orlick founder of the Momo Crawl, comparing
Nepali Bhanchha Ghar lies in the heart of Jackson aka Himalayan Heights.
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 rice-based 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.
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.
74-06 37th Rd, Jackson Heights, NY 11372
Phone: (718) 806-1409
Schneps Media October 17, 2019 21