Many years before now-shuttered The Cheel brought momo and Himalayan five-spice skate to Thiensville, diners who wanted the eclectic flavors of a particular area in South Asia would travel to State Street in Madison. Those big flavors came inside a small package called Himal Chuli. I first ate at that restaurant in college, and for years after I craved it on every visit to the capital, wanting their aromatic, delicately spiced stews to bring warmth back to my winter-chilled body.
Over the last seven years, Milwaukee has dipped its toe into Himalayan cuisine. When a new owner took over Glendale Chinese restaurant Royal Garden, he saw a way to branch out. Raised in Kuine-Mangale, a village in Nepal, Ram Bhulanja moved to Milwaukee to pursue a career in the tech field. After retiring, he fulfilled a longtime dream of running a business, operating Royal Garden and later adding under the same roof Everest Café, which offers Nepalese and Indian dishes. Nepal shares a border with northern India, so a culinary overlap makes sense. The two cuisines use some of the same spices (turmeric, ginger, cumin, coriander), and favor rice, dal (a lentil or pea) and thick, lovely stews of meat and/or vegetables. Nepalese cuisine creates a state of what is called in another chilly part of the world hygge – extreme coziness.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
The beloved momo dumplings are thought to come specifically from the Himalayan region of Tibet, where they were traditionally made during festivals and celebrations. Everest Café offers the little crimped pouches in fillings of seasoned, minced chicken, pork or vegetables and soybeans. All can be steamed; the pork can be steamed or fried. The steamed ones (my favorite is chicken, $13) are plump but light, delicious, starchy blobs that absorb the creamy, sustained heat of the Nepal-style spicy tomato dipping sauce. They pave the way for the hearty, filling Himalayan entrées: daal bhat tarkari, a black lentil-bean stew with cooked, turmeric-yellow cauliflower and steamed basmati ($19); and kukhura-ko masu, a chunky Nepalese chicken curry with strong undertones of coriander and ginger. I could eat them all for days on end and not grow tired.
One day in early October of last year, chef Sandip Bhandari opened the door to the Himalayas even wider. Himalayan Yak – the new Bay View restaurant Bhandari co-owns – also combines Nepalese dishes with Indian (and serves a daily lunch buffet as well). Momo ($13-$14) have a place here (chicken or vegetable, with a mild, smooth dipping sauce), and they’re good, but other starters are better – the terrific baked masala chicken wings ($11) in a thick, sweet-spicy sauce, and sukuti aloo, a funky, tangy dish of boiled, wok-sauteed potatoes, onions and chewy Nepalese beef jerky topped with plenty of fresh cilantro ($9). It has a hook – found across Nepalese cuisine – in its sour umami flavor. The aloo tama bodi isn’t far behind in that way, either. The stew is made with black-eyed peas, potatoes and fermented bamboo shoots ($17). That lends it a defining sourness – not unpleasant, just different.
Many cultures make a version of cabbage soup. The Tibetan chicken thukpa I’ve eaten at the Himalayan Yak is its own, sour-tinged soup creation – more noodle than cabbage, with bits of chicken, carrot and green peas ($11). It’s warm, thick and inviting. Introduced to Nepalese cooking by comforting momo, I’m now at the junction of pickled bamboo shoots and sour soup. I don’t know what comes next, but I hope that it leads to more ways to experience this soothing cuisine.
Himalayan Yak
2321 S. KINNICKINNIC AVE. | 414-312-7223
HOURS: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. (lunch buffet daily 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m.)
PRICES: Appetizers $7-$15; main courses $10-$21
Everest Café
206 W. SILVER SPRING DR., GLENDALE | 414-906-0998
HOURS: Mon-Thurs 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m.; Fri-Sat 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun noon-8:30 p.m.
PRICES: Momo $13-$15; entrées $12-20
