Spice Point Ebisu

About Nepali food

Nepali food is quieter than Indian food. Less cream, less oil, and heat that arrives as a sharp pickle on the side rather than being cooked through the dish. The everyday meal is dal bhat — rice, thin lentil soup, a vegetable and pickle — eaten twice a day by most of the country, and the restaurant menu is essentially that plus momo.

Momo and dal bhat, in that order. Momo tell you whether the kitchen can cook; dal bhat tells you what Nepal actually eats. If jhol momo is on the menu — momo served sitting in a thin spiced broth — order that instead of the steamed ones. Gundruk will taste strange and sour the first time, and is worth ordering anyway.

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.