Jackson Heights Life

For a while they had a big sign that said "Coming in April," but they took that down at the end of the month.  I saw some workers outside a few days ago.  I asked them how long it would be until they reopened and they said about a month.  I can't wait!

JHNY

Ashoka (74-14 37th Ave.), my least-favorite local Indian Buffet, is now closed.  There's a sign up saying a new Nepali/Tibetan/Indian Restaurant will be arriving there soon.  It's good to see some turnover... the local South Asian food scene could use some rejuvenating.

They're popping up amazingly fast and I'm seeing a lot more what I believe to be Nepali folks chatting away in this intersection when I get off the subway.  Maybe they are establishing a kind of Little Tibet here?  I would never have thought that another culture would be able to infiltrate this slice of Little India but that's what seems to be happening.  Is this history in the making?

Nepal and India have always been closely aligned - in terms of their cuisines at least, so the influx of Nepali-Tibetans into Little India isn't too surprising.

I was severely unimpressed by merit farms. does it get better? any recommendations?

What did you get there? The Indian side of the menu is generally better.

I've generally found Tibetan food bland and uninspiring...though some yak dishes I had when I was there were delicious stir-fried with chives. Yak butter tea has to be the most horrible thing I've ever drunk.

I've been to Himalayan Yak before and left the ordering to my Tibetan friend. But personally, tingmos, thantuk and momos just aren't very exciting for me. Anything vaguely spicy is Nepali or Indian, like the dhaal bhaat, which was pretty good.
I totally understand why Tibetan cuisine isn't strong or complex - it is a product of its geographic insularity, after all. Tibetan cuisine is also very dependent on the yak for protein and fat purposes, and yak isn't very well-represented on Himalayan Yak's menu. Hopefully the new place will have more yak dishes, like the yak burger (and yak milkshake) I had in Tibet!

what the hell??? you let the secret out even more!

they arent always available. i went yesterday with no luck. the place is definitely interesting. no refinement whatsoever.

Okay, here's a report on Round 1 of the Great Jackson Heights Momo Showdown.  Jeff is right, "Himalaya Fast Food" has very, very yummy momos.  According to our highly precise scoring system, the filling of their beef momos scores contains exactly as many yummy units per momo as the Shangrila Express Food Cart.  Amazingly, the panel of expert judges flown in from the Beijing Olympics to review this on an emergency basis concluded that the Himalaya Fast Food hot sauce was just as mind-blowingly excellent as the Shangrila Express Food Cart hot sauce, but awarded the newcomer one bonus point for originality since it their sauce is completely different from any of the other delicious hot sauces offered in the competition.  However, the judges docked H.F.F. one point for using an uninspired momo skin resembling a commonplace Chinese dumpling, which falls short of the more distinctive, doughier momo skins used by the food cart.

So after one round of competition we have a draw!  Stay tuned for round two, the freestyle competition, when H.F.F. will compete with its daring chicken momos.