Immensely popular in Nepal and neighbouring India, momos are steamed dumplings traditionally made with minced chicken or lamb, and are as versatile as they are delicious. Served along with achars [pickles] and chutneys, momos make for great street food but can also be added to a spicy soup [jhol momos] for a nourishing meal.
While one can find all kinds of momos on the trendy food streets of Nazimabad, Karachi, it’s absent from the rest of the country’s foodscape, which is particularly surprising, given the craze for Korean bao [steamed buns] a couple of years ago. Momos, with their spicy fillings and chatpatta sauces, seem like bao’s natural heir, the next food obsession waiting in the wings.
Legend has it that the Nepali princess Bhrikuti introduced momos from Tibet to the country in the seventh century, alongside the spread of Buddhism. However, other food historians argue that this is unlikely, given that it is believed that dumplings were originally created in China and spread to Central Asia via the Mongols in the 13th century.
What is more likely is that merchants from the Newar community, a millennia-old ethnic group from Kathmandu Valley, came across the dish on their months-long trading trips to Tibet and brought the recipe for the dumplings back home.
