Kathmandu:

The Dalai Lama’s Favourite Momos are being served at Te Noodle Bar for Tibetan food at Bluebird’s Food Court. Said Pemma Lhaki, “After graduating from Lady Sriram College in Delhi I worked for His Holiness in Dharmashala, and found the recipe for His Holiness’ Favourite Momo on the Internet.”

Pemma, who runs Te Noodle with her mother Chhiring Lama, are perfect examples of people who are seeing their Tibetan food evolve delectably.

The Dalai Lama’s Favourite Momos are an extraordinary combination of cheese, mushrooms, onions and potatoes. A little coriander grounds the momo in the sub-continent, otherwise it could be French. It is without a doubt the most delicious momo I have ever had. The tastes run together and you don’t need the two sauces on offer. The extraordinary thing is that the muskiness of the mushrooms comes through the cheese and the flavoursome potatoes.

The Vegetarian Momos have tofu (bean curd), cabbage, carrot and cheese and are also for gourmet momo eaters. “We use tofu because we wanted to give it a different taste,” says Pemma.

In 130 BC, Prince Liu An of the Han Dynasty, created tofu to help him achieve immortality. You feel immortal after a nibble of the momo.

The Chicken Momo has a squeeze of ginger juice in it without any spices, but a deliciousness of butter adds unusualness.

Two sauces come with the momos — one is a ground red chilli or gunpowder kiss-of-fire. The other (still chilli) is kinder because it’s fried.

“We didn’t fry too much in old Tibet,” says Chhiring. “Frying was for special occasions like Loshar (New Year) when we fry a special bread, Khapse. We offer a choice of fried or boiled noodles with vegetable and spices because Tibetan food must adapt.”

The Noodles are a part of a dish that you make yourself at Te. You fill a bowl with noodles and then choose from several dishes of vegetables for the taste you’re aiming at like onions, carrots... and then you add condiments and sauces. And then you go fried in the modern way or in a soup traditionally Tibetan. In either case, the noodles tastes divine.

“It’s like a Mongolian Barbecue when it’s fried, and like the Burmese Khaukswe or soup when you want it in broth,” says Pemma. Interestingly the Mongolian Barbecue was cooked on the heated metal shields of Genghis Khan’s soldiers in the 13th century.

Says a source, “Just the mouth-watering aroma would cause their enemies to surrender without a fight.” We were completely captivated after the first bite and had to raise peace flags after a second helping.

Once made only during special occasions is my own favourite Tibetan dish Shyaphale, which is Shya (meat) Phale (roti or bread). Shyaphale was infrequently cooked in Tibet because the minced meat in a covering of pastry is deep fried and reminds me of Cornish Pasties or Melton Mowbray Pies from England, which have flavoured minced meat but instead of a fried outer covering have short crust pastry. But the Shyaphale at Te is better than its British counterparts and amongst the finest I’ve eaten.

Then there was the Shaptya, which is like a chicken or pork chilly, only better and the Te momos, which were softer mopped up the gravy of the Shaptya.

And from a tiny kitchen, the mother and daughter team of Pemma Lhaki and Chhiring Lama produce wonders with more to come when they start their Bhutanese food.

In the mean time Tashi Delek. Call 4228833.