I was sitting at my desk at work this afternoon with a black bean burger in front of me and some tater tots. I tell myself it’s a treat meal but still healthy if I don’t eat the buns. Biologically, aren’t potatoes a vegetable anyway? I usually start thinking about lunch at 10 AM. I try to hold out until 11:45 AM but am rarely successful. The burger was a tad dry and I found myself thinking back to the lunches my mom used to send to school and even college. I had choir practice almost every day in undergrad at 1:15PM. Lunch break began at 1 PM so I only had 15 minutes to scarf everything down and the packed lunches were a life saver.
The far superior (taste-wise) but emotionally equivalent “treat” meal was anything from one of the many cafeterias on campus. I can’t remember what all of them are called now but I think they were – Gourmet, Bird’s Park, Aman Rasoi, Fresh something or juice something (?) and Block 4 (did this one have a name?). On the rare occasion when I didn’t have choir practice, I’d tell my mum that I didn’t need the lunch and would buy myself something to suit the day’s flamboyant mood. I think my go-to favorite was the paneer wrap. All it was was a greasy flaky layered parotta stuffed with paneer that was cooked in some mystery red marinade and raw onions. I’ve tried recreating that meal multiple times and the marinade will always be a mystery. My hope was that the secret ingredient would be ketchup and food coloring but I was wrong.
Even more exciting than lunch was the after school snack or if I felt adventurous enough to skip class and avoid the cafeteria crowds, a mid-day snack –nachos and momos. The nachos were just the Indian version of Doritos, mystery cheese sauce that I doubt had any real cheese in it, mystery chilli tomato sauce and some raw onions. Real gourmet stuff. Sometimes I’d have choir practice after class ended at 4 and nachos would be our post singing snack. Mmmm. Drooling at the thought and maybe some nostalgia…
Momos look a lot like dim sums or dumplings and there has always been a big Tibetan population in Bangalore so we really owned the momo as a street food. They’d always serve it with the spiciest chili sauce. The momos would also be served steamed or fried and surprise surprise – they also had momo nachos that were just fried momos with the mystery nacho cheese. I can’t confirm that this was real because my memory is hazy but it feels real and I can almost taste it. I hadn’t had momos since I left India in 2016. We broke that streak on Easter weekend when I went to a Nepali restaurant in Queens, New York (Mustang Thakali Kitchen) and we got C-Momo. I believe the C stood for Chili and that seemed to be a universally acknowledged fact. I was with my roommate and her family who are actually from Nepal so when I saw them all get the C-Momos, I knew I had to too. I love spicy food and compared to the average white person, I think my tolerance is pretty high but compared to most Indians and my grandmother, I’m a wimp. I was sweating even before the momos got to the table and I didn’t know what to expect. Everyone else’s food came out and then came the momos. They were covered in this super sticky bright red mystery sauce (ketchup and food coloring here too?). While the momos were a little rubbery, the sauce was amazing. I was practicing some real deep yogic breathing to keep myself alive but the spice felt so good. It was a tasty burn.
Isn’t it really cool how every culture has its own form of the dumpling? Where did it all begin? Where does it end? I’m going to leave you with a list of my top 5 favorite dumplings. This list is by no means exhaustive and I reserve the right to change my mind.
1. Samosas (this is a fried dumpling and you can’t change my mind)
2. Kozhakatai
3. Spinach and ricotta ravioli
4. Veg momos from the streets of Bangalore
5. Cheese tortellinis
Dedicated to my Main Momo Face – Laxmi Rai
Vish Eats Delish 