The old Hindi saying – the chicken in your backyard tastes like lentils – holds true when it comes to cuisines. Take the food of Nepal, which was introduced to Delhi only after a wide range of cuisines — from Italian and Lebanese to Indonesian and Russian — had already made their presence felt. Though India shares a border with Nepal, I don’t think many Delhi-ites had tasted Nepalese food before Yeti, the Himalayan Kitchen, opened in the food hub of Hauz Khas Village. But it’s become so popular now that a new outlet has opened in Greater Kailash Part 2.
My fondness for Nepalese food is relatively new, too. It was after a trip to Nepal last year for a friend’s 50th birthday that I really started relishing the simple – yet most delicious – food of the region. The thakali thaali that we had at Hotel Monalisa in Pokhara and the newari thaali at Thamel House in Kathmandu can still make me drool. Their way of serving, course by course, in little bowls which came with the most flavourful of saag, potato and fish dishes, added to the taste.
Despite my love for Nepalese food, I had somehow not visited Yeti though everybody who had gone there had recommended it. But every time I planned a visit there, the parking woes at Hauz Khas Village gave me cold feet and I called it off.
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But when I was told about its new outlet in the M Block market of Greater Kailash II (phone nos: 011-41657867 and 41008884), I was happy. My friends – the Chatterji-Sens – had eaten there and urged us to join them for a meal one evening. So, of course, we landed up there – all eager to try out that delicious thakaali thaali (vegetarian: Rs.485; non-vegetarian: Rs.585).
But we never reached the thaali stage because the starters that we ordered were more than a meal. Our meal started with an amuse bouche — a plate of hot sesame potatoes – and ended with a small, complementary plate of sliced fruit. In between, we had sliced pork with vegetables (Rs.310), chicken momos, buff momos (Rs.285), sukuti sadeko, a buff jerky cooked with onions and tomatoes (Rs.335), sekuwa, chargrilled mutton pieces, and tingmo, steamed Tibetan bread (Yeti, being a “Himalayan” kitchen, offers dishes from other regions such as Bhutan and Tibet, too).
The food was simply superb. I’ll tell you what I liked the most – it was the sliced pork with vegetables. This came in a thin but nicely hot sauce, and when I mopped it up with the mildly sweet tingmo, the effect was electric.
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The pork had a bit of fat on it, which really went well with the greens that it came with. The sekuwa – you could describe it as a meat tikka — was again delicious. The momos were soft, and their fillings juicy.
The jerky was dry, as jerky is meant to be – but I must admit that I like my meats a little soft and juicy. The food was served with three kinds of chutneys – a mild sesame one, a hot chilli one and a get-me-a-fire-extinguisher one.
The third chutney, let me warn first-time diners, is mildly red and doesn’t look as hot as the second, chilli-flaked chutney. But go gently here.
Yeti is so good that we are planning to take my visiting nephew and great niece there this week. Nepal, here we come.