Momos at SPICE ROOM

Momos are the soul-food dumplings of the Himalayas — a dish born in the kitchens of Tibet and Nepal, carried down through the mountain passes to Kathmandu, and adopted across northern India in the past forty years. The word "momo" comes from the Tibetan "mog mog," and the original Tibetan version was a winter food: yak meat, onions, and salt, wrapped in wheat dough and steamed over snow-melt water. When Tibetan refugees settled in Kathmandu in the 1950s and 60s, the dish absorbed Nepali ingredients — water buffalo, garlic, ginger, cumin, sichuan pepper — and became Nepal's defining street food. Today, you'll find momo carts on every street corner in Kathmandu, and momo-and-chai stops on every long bus route through the Himalayas.

At SPICE ROOM, every momo is folded by hand in our kitchen, every morning. There's no shortcut machine, no frozen shell, no shortcut. The dough is mixed from soft wheat flour and warm water, kneaded for ten minutes until it's silky, then rested under a damp cloth so it stays pliable. We roll each wrapper to about three inches across — thin enough to see the filling through, thick enough to hold the juice when steamed. The pleating is the giveaway of a hand-folded momo: a real momo has 14 to 18 small pleats running around the rim, gathered to a point at the top. A machine-folded one has four. We do it the right way.

The fillings change by location and by the day, but the core lineup stays the same. Our **chicken momos** are halal ground chicken thigh seasoned with onion, ginger, garlic, cilantro, sichuan pepper, and a small splash of soy. The lamb version uses halal ground lamb shoulder, fattier and richer, with a heavier hand on the cumin. Our **vegetable momos** are not an afterthought — they're cabbage, carrot, onion, garlic, ginger, and cilantro, sautéed briefly first to drive off moisture, then folded in cool. Vegetarians who order momos for the first time are usually surprised by how much flavor a steamed vegetable dumpling can hold.

We serve them three ways. **Steamed** is the classic — soft, juicy, the dough almost translucent. **Pan-fried** (called "kothey momo" in Nepal, or "C-momo" on the menu at our Arvada location) is steamed first and then crisped on one side in a hot pan, so each dumpling has a golden crackling bottom and a tender top. **Jhol momo** floats steamed momos in a fiery sesame-tomato broth, a Newari specialty from Kathmandu — only available at our Arvada location, and one of the best cold-weather dishes in our entire menu.

The chutney is what most people remember after they leave. It's a house-made tomato-chili sauce: roasted Roma tomatoes blended with dried red chilies, garlic, sichuan pepper, and a touch of toasted sesame oil. Spicy, smoky, slightly sweet from the roasted tomato. We make it fresh every morning. If you want it milder, ask — we'll thin it with extra tomato. If you want it fierier, we have a hotter version behind the bar.

You can order momos at all three SPICE ROOM locations — Highlands, Bluebird District, and Olde Town Arvada — but the Arvada location has the deepest momo menu, including the jhol momo and seasonal kothey variants. It's also the only Indian or Himalayan restaurant in the Arvada area serving momos at all. If you've never had one, the chicken steamed eight-piece is the right starting point. If you're a regular, try the jhol on a cold Denver night.