#83 – MOMOS at HIMALAYAN HUT

For the third year in a row, I’m going to attempt to eat every single item on Time Out New York’s annual 100 Best Dishes list. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100. Let the gluttony continue…

My friends must think I’m a lunatic. After a full day of eating our way through Flushing, I had to make a quick stop (turned out to be not so quick) a few subway stops away at Himalayan Hut for some more dumplings. Tibetan food is under-represented in Flushing’s Chinatown, but in the very diverse neighborhood of Jackson Heights you can find many versions of momos. These happened to be found inside an Indian restaurant.

It wasn’t completely clear what was going on at this place. It’s no longer called Himalayan Hut, but instead Chilli Chicken. The two menus, however, still say Himalayan Hut. One menu is dedicated to American Chinese food and the other to halal Desi (Indian) Chinese food. This spot (like many in Jackson Heights) is fusion food at its most surprising.

Momos are from Nepal, Tibet which borders the Himalayan regions of India. And hence the fusion food. I’ve had momos before and they are very similar to the Chinese jiaozi dumplings I’ve spent months examining on my search.

These are very thick-skinned and stuffed with your choice of vegetable, chicken or beef. We chose the steamed chicken variety which also featured scallions and onions. I don’t remember being served this spicy red tomato-chili sauce with the dumplings before, but evidently it is quite authentic.

It added some spice and liveliness to the rather bland dumplings. Aside from rich ginger notes inside, there wasn’t much flavor aside from dough. I must confess I missed the soy vinegar sauce served with most jiaozi.

I ate as many as I could, but since I was already stuffed with noodles, dumplings, and lamb skewers, I had to take the rest for later. And while the menu looked appealing across the board, I did not have room for any other dishes. See friends, I’m not as crazy as you think.

Would Himalayan Hut (Chilli Chicken)’s Momos make my Top 100 of the Year? They’re not the most flavorful momos I’ve ever had, but the spicy red sauce was interesting and the delicate wrappers were nice and chewy for a 7 out of 10.