Momo Day

Mmmmm, momos

This week Mim was skipping up our corridor singing “It’s Momo Day”. It is the most popular day of the term for many people and also one of the busiest for some sections of KISC. On Momo day 2,000 Momos are made and consumed.

But what are Momo’s? They are a favourite food of Nepal, although they are Tibetan in origin. The large number of Tibetan refugees in Nepal, mean that they are very popular here, although they have probably been made and sold in Kathmandu for centuries. Momos are a steamed dumpling that are filled with either meat, usually chicken or buff, or vegetables. They are available in almost every restaurant in Kathmandu and once or twice a term we get them for lunch at KISC. This is known as Momo Day.

Enjoying a plate a few months back

Momos are always steamed, but they can then be deep fried, or just fried on the bottom (Kothey Momos). You can get chilli momos, jholmomos (in a soup), Open Momo, green Momo (with spinach in the the dough), DhapuMomo (giant momos) and you can also sometimes find them filled with fish orpaneer.

If you order them in a restaurant you’ll usually get a plate of about 12, although the KISC momo eating champion claims he can eat more than 30 in one sitting. There are actually momo eating competitions in Kathmandu!

Helping prepare momos with the kitchen staff

On KISC days it’s always chicken and you have the choice of steamed or fried. As they have to make around 2000 momos we have to hire in extra staff to help. This past week they had a special guest! I wanted to know how to make them and so I joined the kitchen staff for an hour to help. As I very slowly folded my momo, the kitchen staff powered through, making very neat and uniform looking momos. Mine were all wonky and each looked unique. Although, as one of them pointed out, they’d been doing it for 25 years, whereas I’d been doing it for 25 minutes. The good news was that all mine still got eaten, and nobody complained theirs didn’t look as good.

Momos are definitely one of the things that 3 of us will miss, Becky isn’t too fused. The time in the kitchen will maybe help me know what to do and I can try to make them in the UK. We’ll see!