Thursday 26 April 2012

Give us this day our daily Tigmo


Tigmo sound pretty exotic huh? It's actually one of the most basic foods known to man, steamed bread, that's what it is. It's like a Chinese bao, without the filling, interesting hey, they have bao and we have pao, must be some connection. Must check with google bhagwan if bao is the Chinese word for feet, because that's how our famous pao came to be named. Yes, after the feet that knead the dough.

 I had  Tigmo for the first time on my recent  trip to Mussorie.

There is a small Tibetan eatery on one end of the mall called Kalsang, well it's actually a good example of detente. The proprietors show their defiance of the Chinese occupation of their country by pasting 'Free Tibet; stickers on the doors. Everybody shows their defiance of the Chinese by  aggressively attacking the food which is standard Indi Chinese. The place does pretty well  and is usually packed at meal times.

The hygiene is on full display as the Iron Maiden hairstyle waiters wipe each melamine plate three to four times before setting it down in front of you.

Each table has a glass top and underneath are napkins with customer feedback written on them, very interesting concept. I liked the Shaptak, which is basically sliced chicken cooked with diced tomatoes and onions and I think there was some bell pepper too. What really rocked for me was the Tigmo, we just ordered it on a whim and were delightfully surprised by the large hot steamed buns of tibetan bread. These were very good with the Shaptak and I wiped up the last of the sauce with my Tigmo.

The meal would have been fabulous with a nice glass of cold  beer, however they don't have a licence. I'm thinking of getting some stickers made to show my displeasure.

The Uttaranchal government needs to learn something from my homecity, Gurgaon or Gurgawan (pronounced with a slight nasal touch, this is the way to differentiate the newbies from the orignial residents of jaggery town). We have bleedin booze shops all over the place. There are fewer chemists in Gurgaon than there are Angrezi sharab ka thekas.

But seriously, the food at Kalsang was pretty neat and not too demanding on the wallet. If you do go there, try the chilly fry momos. And if you are having steamed momos, go slow on the sauce, the thing can burn you another foodpipe.

Cheers, more later.

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