At a new popup restaurant in New York City, Nepali spices and hand-wrapped momos highlight the traditions and culture behind the cuisine of the North Face region in the Himalayas, an area many only associate with extreme sports and puffer coats.
Nichi Pandey, 22, and Steven Li, 23, childhood friends who grew up in Maryland, wanted their new restaurant, the Orange Peel Cafe, in the Lower East Side to tell the story of the Nepal-Chinese border and its people.
The North Face refers to the north side of Mount Everest, also known as Sagarmatha in Nepali. Over 50 million people live in the Himalayas, which spans about 1,550 miles across the continent and borders five countries: Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Pakistan. The north side of Everest is largely uninhabited and separates Nepal and China.
The area is most associated with the North Face clothing brand, but Pandey, who is Nepali, and Li, who is Chinese, wanted to honor their two distinctive cultures with the popup, which is in place through the end of May.
Pandey said he thinks the culture of the area is overlooked. “In some ways, it is disrespectful … people don’t appreciate the cultural aspect of it because they want the glory of climbing this mountain.”
The area’s mountainous terrain and harsh weather conditions have bred innovative cooking techniques and ingredients that are shared by both Nepal and China. The Orange Peel Cafe — a nod to peeling away and slowly revealing flavors — exemplifies these shared aspects in their weekly changing menu. They serve turmeric fried rice, reminiscent of rice served in tea houses throughout the Himalayas, pan fried pork ribs with sticky rock sugar sauce and what they refer to as a “childhood snack” of boiled eggs pan-fried with turmeric and chili flakes. And then there are, of course, momos — homemade and steamed-to-order dumplings filled with beef or tofu accompanied by Nepali spices like cumin and Timur pepper, a relative of Szechuan pepper found…
Read the full article here
