Baltimore County boasts one of the country’s largest Nepalese populations.
If you like to eat, this is very good news because there are a number of restaurants that specialize in the cuisine.
Nepalese food is flavorful, nutritious, filling — and won’t break the bank. It’s vegetarian-friendly; it doesn’t favor as many rich sauces as similar cuisines from neighboring India and Pakistan, and its soup-focused specialties are perfect for cold weather. Plus, much of it cooks slowly in clay pots, which means the longer the ingredients steep in the spices, the better the food tastes. Excellent recipe for leftovers.
Most Nepalese restaurants also feature Indian dishes, so if you love your samosas and saags, you can still order them and try a few Nepalese specialties. Like Dal Bhat Tarkari, which translates as rice (bhat), lentils (dal), and vegetables (tarkari). Nepalese food tends to be less spicy than Indian, and less bread-forward. At one Nepali restaurant, I ordered what I thought were samosas, and they came with a delicious filling but no crispy wanton wrapped around them.
Nepali food also features fermented vegetables, bamboo shoots, and thukpa, a filling noodle soup. Another staple is dhido, a sticky porridge made out of millet served on a plate with curries and pickled vegetables for dipping. Nepalis cook with millet because it was once cheaper and healthier than rice, but these days, rice has become so ubiquitous that now diners expect it with entrees and the millet porridge feels like a delicacy, said Nara Khakurel, a Nepali immigrant who owns the Coffee Talk Cafe in Towson.
The local Nepalese restaurants ask for spice level preference. Khakurel said that’s to customize each dish. He also said Nepalese dishes consider the whole rhythm of a meal. Entrees include fermented vegetables to aid in digestion; desserts include sweet yogurts to cool any spicy bites.
“A lot of art and science goes into the cuisine,” he said, “and there are always new things to learn.”
Every food culture seems to have a national dish that involves some kind of meat or vegetable ensconced in some kind of starch. In Jewish food, this is the kreplach; in Chinese, the dumpling; in Italian, the ravioli; in Polish, the pierogi. For the Nepalese, the corresponding delicacy is the momo. Steamed or fried, wrapped around chicken or buffalo meat, it is delicious on its own or submerged in a broth of soybeans, lentils, or sauce. Khakurel said that when he was a child in Nepal, the buffalo momo in sauce — called buff momo johl — was a treat poorer families like his almost never enjoyed.
When my kids were little, we would frequent Indian restaurants and let the kids order from the Nepali side of the menu. Now my kids love spicy food, but I’m still likely at an Indian restaurant to stick to the comforting flavors of Nepal.
Diners have long flocked to the city’s Nepali spots: Nepal House in Mount Vernon, Kumari in Federal Hill, Namaste in Evergreen/Roland Park or Mount Everest in Hampden. But don’t let the uninviting strip malls of eastern Baltimore County deter you. They offer cuisine every bit as flavorful as the city’s.
Butter Chicken Restaurant
6837 Loch Raven Blvd.; (410) 821-5100
When the hostess handed me my takeout order, she smiled and said, “You are very lucky tonight.” I knew that already. My family and I had recently discovered this cozy restaurant, with its karaoke machine and its delicious signature dish, when we were searching Google for Nepalese restaurants near our Towson home. We already knew the butter chicken was incredible, but we wanted to try more Nepalese dishes.
We ordered lamb sukuti chowmein, a dish where the meat is dried and smoked and then tossed with spices and noodles and vegetables. Think of it like an Indian-forward stir-fry. We also enjoyed lamb do piaza, lamb with two onions and includes a curry-like sauce that matched the tender meat perfectly. Our hands-down favorite was the Buff Johl momo, which we smothered in the sauces and enjoyed as leftovers the next day.
Kathmandu Kitchen
22 Allegheny Ave.; (410) 847-9595
https://mykathmandukitchen.com
When my friend Alexandra emailed to say she had transferred from the University of California, Berkeley to the Johns Hopkins University to finish her doctorate, we decided lunch was in order at this downtown Towson mainstay. Because she’s vegan and trekking up from the city, I decided the least I could do was pick a restaurant with lots of vegetarian options.
Alexandra ordered the Aloo Rama Bodi, a flavorful stew of fermented bamboo shoots (tame), potatoes (aloo), and black-eyed peas (bodi). The fermented bamboo shoots make the dish sour, which is why I didn’t order it when the waiter described it. Alexandra liked it, and took home a good bit. She stretched it out with the leftover rice for multiple lunches.
I ordered a kwati soup with chili-spiced momo, thinking I was hungry enough for both. I didn’t finish either. The soup, which includes nine sprouted beans, tasted like lentils. With some naan for dipping, it was plenty for lunch. I could easily order that soup once a week. The chili momos were a little spicy for me, but not for my husband, who devoured them for a late lunch when I brought them home.
Taste of Taj
9810 Belair Road; (410) 609-7662
If you think the suburbs are boring, you’ve never spent an evening waiting for takeout at this delightful Nepalese/Asian/Indian restaurant in Nottingham. At first, I didn’t see any patrons, but that’s because I didn’t enter through the bar, which was packed with young professionals. One TV featured the news, another broadcast the Ravens game and a speaker piped in Nepali music. I felt like dancing.
The joy continued when I unpacked our dinner later at home. I ordered a samosa chat and expected a little pocket of savory peas. Instead, the dish had no breading and was a delicious layering of beans and spices. It reminded me of a Super Bowl party seven-layer dip, in the best way. The chicken and buffalo momos we ordered were good, but the standout was a chiso (cold) soup for dipping the dumplings in. I added some chicken dumplings overnight into the chiso and took it for lunch the next day. It was reminiscent of my Jewish grandmother’s kreplach soup, if only she knew spices beyond the salt shaker. Next time, I’ll join the party and eat at the bar.
Mount Everest Restaurant
7927 Belair Road; (410) 668-2264
www.mounteverestrestaurant.com
Like Taste of Taj and Butter Chicken, Mount Everest resides in an eastern Baltimore County strip mall. And like them, it should not be judged by its exterior. The inside is homey, with a photograph of New Zealand explorer Sir Edmund Hillary and his Nepali sherpa, Tensing Norgay, at the Everest summit. The two were the first confirmed climbers to reach it.
I ordered the momos, which as usual were delicious. Himalayan Junelly was a delightful bowl of chicken simmered with spices and a tomato-like sauce. Nepali lamb saag was similar to the saag paneer Indian dish my daughter loves, but with tender lamb instead of cheese. The order came with ample rice.
Everything was superb, but the standout was an appetizer of Aloo Tikki Chat, a street food dish of potato patties smothered in chutneys and covered in chickpeas. They reminded me of potato latkes, minus the grease and with added protein.
My only quibble with the county’s Nepali food scene is that I do not live close enough for delivery at most of these restaurants. I can only hope that more Nepali entrepreneurs set up shop closer to home. More momos, please.
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