The stupa of Boudhanath lies on the ancient trade route from Tibet which enters the Kathmandu valley. Therefore the area around Boudha is inhabited by people descended from Tibet. It’s given that the culture and food of a locality will be influenced by the people living there. You can find food, art and handicrafts, incense and praying materials in and around Boudha which reflects the Tibetan values and culture. If you want to try some authentic Tibetan food around Boudha, you will find many eateries that serve them.
In search of Tibetan food, we stumbled upon Shambala Café, a perfect place to enjoy hearty Tibetan food. A year into its establishment and it’s buzzing with local as well as foreign crowd enjoying meals with their family and friends. Shambala café offers good coffee, bakery items and you guessed it, wholesome Tibetan food.
When spoken with, the manager of the Shambala café, Lopsang Sherpa told me the benefits of Tibetan food, that it is used to warm the body and to protect one’s body from cold during winter. Tibetans love soup dishes as a natural inclination towards body warming food at high altitude. They use it to overcome the long harsh winter in Tibet. It’s also an extremely wholesome diet because the food is not made with unnecessary additives with an exception of a few spices. Having never tasted Tibetan food myself, he suggested I try the Shambala Special Tibetan set and two Tibetan soup-based meal.
If you want to enjoy true Tibetan taste, then Shambala Special set is for you. A warm bowl of rice with hot vegetable curry and potato noodles, a tingmo and 4 pieces of regular momos and a piece of shyaphale sums up the Special set. A tingmo is a steamed flour dough with a peculiar shape and shyaphale is a deep-fried pastry filled with meat, spring onions and simple spices and served with chili sauce.
The second dish Thenthuk is a favorite one amongst the Boudha crowd. In Tibetan language, Thenthuk literally translates into pulled-noodles. It is a simple delicious soup with pulled noodles, radish, potato, spinach, and meat. The fresh cut pieces of vegetables are boiled with simple spices, pulled noodles and some thin pieces of meat or, an egg according to the preference of the customer.
Believed to be originated from Tibet, the taste of Tibet is incomplete without momos. Sha- Mothuk is a Tibetan soup based momo dish. The whole dish is cooked in sesame oil and garnished with sesame seeds. It’s got a tangy flavor to it, which I found was very palatable to my taste buds. The soup was heartwarming, the explosion of new flavors was satisfying after a long and tiring day.
With this, our experience of Tibetan Food ended in satisfaction at Shambala Cafe. Step into Shambala Café to indulge in wholesome Tibetan food to keep yourself warm during this cold season.
Location: Boudha, Fulbari
Contact Info: 9818544557
Nisha Maharjan is a content writer at Nepal Traveller.
Pictures: Shree Krishna
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