Spicing Up the Workplace Cafeteria with Momos

The one place I wish I could eat every day?  Probably Koreatown in Annandale, VA.  Maybe the Taiwanese restaurants in Rockville.  Santceloni in Madrid – that would work as well.

The place I actually eat every day?  The cafeteria at my office.

But yesterday, a woman named Smita provided hope for a more interesting lunch future.  Historically, our relationship has worked like this: she works the cash register, and I work her for information about her native cuisine.  She was born and raised in Nepal. 

A few weeks ago, she made the grave error of mentioning to me that she excels at making momos, a Tibetan-influenced stuffed dumpling that’s popular in Nepal.  Since then, my nagging for a sample has been incessant.  I imagine one day she realized she was either going to have to cook me momos or quit. 

Favoring stable employment, she brought me her homemade momos yesterday.  Damn economy.  Smita handed me two bags from a cubby underneath the register, without speaking a word – the silence was necessary, I guess, to avoid arrousing the jealousy of other customers.  One bag contained a dark red sauce.  The other was filled with pillowy, half-moon shaped dumplings. 

They were phenomenal.  The filling – ground chicken, vegetables, and scallions – was tender with a hint of spice.  Cilantro, Smita said.  I drizzled on the tomato-based dipping sauce, which was laced with lemon juice and garlic – like an Indian curry, but lighter.

I couldn’t ask for anything momo.  But I was intrigued to read that, in addition to chicken, vegetables, and pork, a popular momo filling is yak meat.  Smita said her Hindu religion prevents her from indulging in these Himalayan bovines.  I’m also not sure where one buys yak in D.C.

I’m honored that Smita took the time to make dumplings for me (she does, after all, work seven days a week).  And I was satiated – for a moment.  Then she told me about phalay, a Nepalese ground-chicken patty.  Does this woman learn nothing from her mistakes?