March 2010 - Nepal

Okay So I admit, we got a little bit lax in our blog keeping, but hopefully we are back on track again. So, Nepal. Now I must admit that when we pulled Nepal out of our hat we were quite stumped as to the type of food that we would be eating. Would it be more Indian, Asian, Russian or have its very own flavour. Well after a quick perusal of the recipes on the internet we decided that perhaps the best way to capture the flavours of Nepal would be to leave it to the experts. That said we found an amazing Nepalese restaurant called, " Mustang" right here in Sydney. Mustang (pronounced Moo-stang) is an area of Nepal nestled in the Himalayas. We all decided to order the banquet which could provide a comprehensive coverage of the menu and let us have the complete Nepalese experience.

Our Menu for the evening was:

STARTER

• Momo (chicken dumplings)

• Haku Chhwela (grilled diced beef)

• Aloo Chops ( potato cake)
• Papads and Nepalese Achar

MAINS:
• Butter chicken
• Mustang Lamb
• Mixed Vegetable curry
• Everest Chicken
• Pumpkin Kwaa
• Steamed Rice

DESSERT:

• Himalayan Baraf ( homemade icecream flavoured with cardamom and pistachio nuts)

Well I think we all were quite impressed. It is a difficult type of food to describe. The curries were familiar but there was something sweeter and less spicy about them. Ialso felt that some of the spices that we are used to like coriander and cumin were more toned down and other flavours were more prominent. I loved the momos in particular which were the steamed dumplings which I suppose shows the Eastern influences on the cuisine. All in all it was enjoyable, the foods that we expected to be less spicy were the hotter ones (potato cakes) and the ones which we thought would be more spicy, like some of the curries were milder. As you can see from the vast array of foods, we really did have a banquet!

NEXT MONTH: CHILE