Himalayan food

What Himalayan food is

Himalayan menus draw on Tibetan and high-hill Nepali cooking, where little grows and a meal has to be warming and calorie-dense. Expect wheat rather than rice, broth rather than gravy, and a spice level far below anything on an Indian menu. The food is closer to Central Asia than to the subcontinent.

What defines it

Simplicity and heat retention. Thukpa — hand-pulled or cut noodles in a bone broth with vegetables and a little meat — is the centrepiece, and the broth is where the work goes. Momo appear here too, but the Tibetan versions are often larger, plainer and served with a thinner chilli sauce. Butter and barley recur: tsampa, roasted barley flour, and po cha, tea churned with salt and butter, which tastes more like a thin soup than a drink.

Recurring throughout: Thukpa and brothWheat noodles and dumplingsBarley and butterMild spicingBone stock

How a meal works

A bowl per person rather than shared plates, because the food is soup-led. Thukpa arrives very hot and is eaten with both chopsticks and spoon: chopsticks for the noodles, spoon for the broth. Momo come by the plate to share. There is rarely a bread course and rarely rice.

If it is your first time

Thukpa if it is cold, momo either way. Ask for the chilli sauce on the side rather than in the bowl — Himalayan broth is deliberately mild and the sauce is there to adjust it yourself. If shabaley is on the menu, a fried meat pastry, order one: it is the thing most people have never had and immediately want again.

Worth knowing when you order

• Thukpa is the dish to judge the kitchen by
• Ask for chilli sauce on the side — the broth is meant to be mild
• Portions are generous; a bowl of thukpa is a whole meal
• Butter tea is an experience, not a beverage — try a small cup first

Dishes to know

• Chicken Momo — Nepal's steamed dumpling, eaten by hand with a bowl of sesame-tomato achar.
• Buff Momo — The Kathmandu default — buffalo mince, a thicker wrapper and a darker achar.
• Veg Momo — The vegetarian momo, where the filling has to be seasoned harder to carry itself.

Regional variation

Restaurants labelled Himalayan abroad are usually run by Tibetans, Sherpas or people from Nepal's northern districts, and the menu depends heavily on which. A Tibetan kitchen leans towards thukpa, tingmo and shabaley; a Sherpa one towards potato dishes like rildok. Many also carry a short Indian section for customers who expect it, in the same pattern as Indo-Nepali places.

Where to find Himalayan restaurants

• Tokyo — 54 restaurants
• New York — 3 restaurants
• Delhi — 1 restaurant

Other cuisines

• Indian — Not one cuisine but a continent's worth, unified by how spices are handled rather than by what is cooked.
• Indo-Nepali — The most common restaurant format abroad: a Nepali kitchen cooking a mostly Indian menu, with momo on the side.
• Nepali — Lighter, sourer and less oily than its neighbours, built around a tray of rice, lentils and greens.
• South Indian — Rice, lentils and fermentation — a lighter, sourer tradition with almost no relation to a North Indian menu.