Spice Spice Gaienmae

About Himalayan food

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.

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.

Eating in Tokyo

Tokyo's South Asian food is dominated by a specific format: a Nepali-run kitchen serving a largely North Indian menu, built around a weekday lunch set of curry, enormous naan and a small salad. It is so consistent that it is effectively its own genre. Underneath it sits a smaller, more interesting layer of genuinely Nepali cooking, and a handful of serious regional Indian restaurants.