New York Street Food

(credit: NYSF)

Chinese Mirch is one of the food trucks working with the Mayor’s Fund To Advance NYC, helping to feed those most affected by Hurricane Sandy.

A few days before the storm, we stopped by Chinese Mirch. This is our report.

While there are new food trucks and carts coming out on a regular basis, we still need to keep up on all the menu changes in the existing street food world.

Chinese Mirch, a Rookie of the Year Vendy Award nominee last month, teased us a while back when they experimented with keema dumplings and spinach dumplings. We couldn’t make it to the truck at the time, but the experiment must have gone well, because keema and spinach momos are now on the regular menu.

An order of 5 keema or spinach momos is $6, and they were nice enough to let us split the order. No, not 2½ dumplings each. We got 2 spinach and 3 keema momos.

We don’t often get dessert with lunch, but dumplings are usually not filling enough to hold us until dinner. To top things off, we got a mango mousse dessert for $3.

(credit: NYSF)

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Momos are a traditional dumpling dish from Tibet and Nepal.  I had tasty momos in Amsterdam a couple of years ago at Tibet Restaurant, on the edge of the red-light district.  A little closer to home, you can get excellent momos in New York at the Tibetan Kitchen (444 Third Ave, between 30th & 31st St).  I’m sure there are other places around New York to get momos, so please put your favorite in the comments for everyone to enjoy.

Delish Recipes has a video to show you how to make momos.  If you’re not up to making the flour & water dough, simply buy dumpling wrappers or wonton skins at your favorite Asian grocer.  Cooking should be fun and easy, not heavy-duty drudge work.

The fillings are usually ground meat – chicken, pork, lamb or yak (if you want to get super-authentic),  spiced with onions, shallots, garlic, coriander, salt, pepper and cumin.  In their video, pureed tomatoes are added to the mixture.  I wouldn’t do this personally, but that’s the point – feel free to make them to your taste.  There’s not one specific way to make a momo.

Enjoy!

Momos (not from Steam House Momos)

Parveen Sikkandar of India’s Express Buzz newspaper, was getting tired of parathas, sandwiches and biryanis for his usual street food, so he tried some Tibetan momos from Steam House Momos in Chennai (opposite the Park Sheraton Hotel on TTK Road).   There were uniformed chauffeurs queued up to buy the dumplings, so he figured they were worth lining up for.  Interestingly, the momos had different shapes too; one was mouse shaped with a tiny tail and its guts out, and another resembled a deformed wanton.

Unfortunately, when he got home with the momos, the flour wrap on one was thicker than a pancake and the chicken filling was so minimal that he had to rummage around to taste it.  The one with the spinach and corn stuffing was a disaster; the steam had shocked the spinach so that it was tasteless and there were only three corn kernels.

The momos were all steam and no stuff! If you’re in Chennai, don’t bother with Steam House Momos. [Express Buzz (India)]

On the other hand, I had tasty momos in Amsterdam a couple of years ago at Tibet Restaurant, on the edge of the red-light district.  In New York, I’ve had excellent momos at the Tibetan Kitchen, located at 444 Third Ave, between 30th & 31st St.  These are the only places where I have first-hand knowledge.  Please put your favorites place for momos in the comments for everyone to enjoy.