Momo - Nepalese Dumplings

Have you ever had a meal so good you thought about it for the rest of the day?

I was lying in bed, still a bit hungover from the night before, about to fall asleep, reviewing my day, when I realized I could not take my mind off these dumplings I had eaten earlier. It sounds silly but it’s true.

I was returning home from the super market, taking my normal route, when I was overcome with “hangover hunger”. I needed a quick bite, I needed to refuel. I looked around and spotted a tiny shop I pass everyday but have never gone in. The giant orange sign of the shop advertises bubble tea and "momo" with a picture of dumplings. I have passed this shop maybe 100 times but never cared to stop in, however, the dumplings always caught my eye. I decided today was the day I check it out.

I walk in. There’s an older gentleman to my left sitting on a stool, hunched over, eating dumplings on a counter by the window. There are seven or eight empty stools scattered around and a man behind the counter. I can tell by the way he’s staring at me that it’s been a slow day. I look above him at the menu on the wall (the way Chinese take-out restaurants have the menu with pictures above the counter.) Eight pictures and the first one is the dumplings, momo. Meat and dough. That’ll do. I order. 8 dumplings. 4 chicken, 4 beef. $6. I ask him what country the food is from. Nepal. I’ve never had Nepalese food, this excites me. 

I take a seat at the window counter on a stool and stare out into the street. It’s dull and grey outside, a gentle Sunday drizzle passes on. 2-3 minutes go by. Dumplings are ready. I walk to the counter and the man hands me a styrofoam plate with 8 steamed dumplings. He points to a red sauce bottle on the counter – “Spicy”. He points to a yellow sauce bottle next to it – “Special Sauce”. I grab the bottles and cover half my dumplings with spicy sauce and the other half with special sauce.

I stick the tiny plastic fork into the first dumpling and shove it in my mouth. It’s still piping hot from the steamer, I burn corners of my mouth and tongue but I've already committed and have too much pride to turn back, I chew and swallow. It’s delicious. Salty, doughy, juicy, meaty, spicy. I eat another just as fast. Then another. I pause to reflect on what I’m experiencing. You can only experience something for the first time once. First visit, first kiss, first bite. The dumplings are thin and slippery from the steam. Inside the ground meat is well seasoned but does not overwhelm. There is a bit of juice inside as well, the steam has cooked some of the fat off the meat and it tastes like warm soup broth. It’s the best part and feels like it’s melting my hangover away. The red sauce is a spicy chili sauce and goes very well with the dumplings. The “special sauce” tastes like a peanut/sesame sauce, but watered down. It’s okay. I finish the dumplings. I feel much better.

Trying a random restaurant for the first time with a hangover, getting my food within minutes, thoroughly enjoying it and feeling much better. This meal was a win. I thank the man behind the counter and tell him the food was very good. He smiles and says “come again” as he waves his arm toward himself as if inviting me back in already.

I leave satisfied and happy that I stopped by. I’ll be coming again soon.

BONUS: I came by again this weekend. This time I tried another dish called Samay Baji as well as the momo and some bubble tea. I chatted with the owner and chef who were incredible welcoming. The chef asked me what other types of dumplings I eat and I told him Chinese. He said there are way better, he's not wrong. I took a few more photos for you guys. Check them out.

Samay Baji (left) and dumplings (right) with spicy and special sauce.

Samay Baji consists of dried shaved white rice, crisped soy beans with cilantro, chilies and onions, BBQ chicken, cucumbers and peas in a spicy sauce, red chick peas and potatoes. The dish is very spicy.

Coconut Bubble Tea

HESBURGER

Hesburger is the most under-rated and unknown fast-food joint in the world. As Finland's only fast-food hamburger chain, it was voted one of the top five foreign fast-food chains that should come to the USA, and I couldn't agree more.

The fries are good, crispy and salty, but the secret is in the burger. Scroll down to see what I am talking about.

Here is my full Mega-Ateria (Mega-Meal). Large Soda, fries, double burger with extra large patties and buns.

The buns are super soft and toasted, patties are tasty and juicy, but do you see that orange stuff in the top layer, that's crack sauce aka paprika mayo. The paprika mayo sauce is sweet, creamy and literally addicting. It can take any average burger to the next level.

Here are the fries. Nothing crazy but they are good.

Here is the burger again and my finger for size reference. This burger is right up there with the big mac and baconator. Don't believe me, go to Finland and try it yourself.

 BONUS FOOD!!!

Huh? 

That's a burger weighing in at a whopping 1kg! That's 2.2lbs for you Americans. 14 euros for the burger, 17 for the meal. And you thought America was the only country with disgusting, over sized and borderline unnecessarily large burgers? Look out USA you've got competition.

As much as I wanted the 1kg burger I am no Kobayashi. So I went with the XXL burger instead, just under 1kg. Look at the size comparison between the burger and the ketchup cups. And the BOX of french fries.

My burger dwarfs the french fry it stands next to.

WARNING: This is a MAN's burger. No children allowed.

Here I am a couple bites in, comparing my burger to my cousin's normal double burger. XXL burger laughs at your kale salad and quiona.

If you're wondering, yes I did eat the whole burger and all the fries. Probably the biggest single meal I have ever eaten, and I could have eaten more (I'm serious).

MAKKARA aka Finnish Sausage

Some of you know and some of you don't know that I am half Finnish. My mother is from Finland and I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to visit Finland every summer to see my relatives and enjoy my summer vacation at a lake house.

Summer is short in Finland, so when it arrives the Finns spend the majority of their time outside by their lake houses relaxing, drinking and grilling. What do they grill you ask? Makkara. That's Finnish for sausage. Makkara comes in different flavors, sizes and colors. They even have a blood Makkara made with rice. It can be eaten plain, but usually with ketchup or Finnish mustard. 

Here's what they look like in their packages.

Straight from the grocery store. Two popular brands.

Let the grilling begin.

Some of them have been flipped, others take their time.

Extreme close up. Looks good right?

Here they are almost finished (get it, FINished).

An easy way to tell when they are ready is when the skin cracks open like this.

Here is a typical Finnish lunch in the summer. Makkara, ketchup, mustard, bread, butter, cheese, beet root salad, and cottage cheese. Really really good.

Here are some bonus pictures from another makara grill session at my friends lake house.

Look! Bacon too!

More goodies from Thailand

FRESH coconut from the island of Koh Phangan. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I envisioned fresh coconut to be some kind of elixir of life. Mother nature's finest tropical juice. And drinking it for the first time would be like that scene in Cast Away where Tom Hanks smashes a coconut open and quenches his thirst with a few drops. Not quite.

The stuff just tastes bad. Some thing like old water mixed with chlorine mixed with bleach. Very disappointing. It looks so beautiful in it's carved and cut open shell that doubles as a drinking mug.

At least he looks good with sunglasses on, sort of.

 Now this is good. Traditional Thai soup. The main ingredient is a root vegetable that tastes like ginger. In there are carrots, mushrooms, cabbage and spring onions. It has the consistency of chicken soup without the chicken. Popular and good (like this blog).

Green curry with coconut milk and chicken. I'm going straight back to 1998 and calling this da bomb. Green and red peppers, moist chicken and creamy curry coup. A little spicy and so tasty.

That's shrimp Pad Thai. Tastes just like Pad Thai back here in the states. Noodles, shrimp, cabbage, carrots sprinkled with fresh lime.

Pad Thai and Thai Soup.

This looks basic because it is. It also tastes amazing. Garlic and basil chicken over Jasmine rice. Sometime the most simple meals are the best. 

The juices be flowing.

Here's a shot from a jungle party on the island. They were fully stocked with food stands like this selling fried chicken burger, kebabs, corn, spring rolls, pizza, fruit and sandwiches. Didn't eat any of it though. 

That's all I have from my stay in Thailand. Check out my next post about my mother country of Finland, its guuuuuuuuud!

Fresh Fish BBQ in Koh Phangan

I had the pleasure of staying on the island of Koh Phangan while in Thailand. Koh Phangan is located in the gulf of Thailand and is most famous for the monthly Full Moon Party (i'll save that for another post). Me and my girlfriend were lucky enough to stay in a beach front (air conditioned!) bungalow on Haad Salad beach. The beach and scenery were beautiful as was the food. There were about 15 different resorts on our beach, most of which served fresh BBQ fish every night. The fish menu at our bungalow included red snapper, white snapper, sea bass, king mackerel, barracuda, squid, king prawn and lobster. You could also get side orders of salad, potato and sweet corn. The fish was always caught that day and always tasted delicious. I can't pick a favorite because they all tasted so damn good. 

Here is a shot of the fish, the grill is firing behind it, the menu is next to the grill, the bar is behind that and one of the waiters is looking out onto the water.  This was at My Way Bungalows, the bungalow we stayed at. 

On the left was a German man who seemed to be the head chef. He was very friendly and told us all about each fish and what they tasted like. To the right was the cook. You can see her handling the potatoes, salad, and sweet corn. 

This beautiful girl modeled the fish for me.

Another shot of the grill station and the cook getting ready for the evening.

This particular night they had a rare fish. The German guy called it a parrot nosed fish, but I don't think that's the official name for it. Fun fact: I saw this fish a few days later while snorkeling in the ocean. Next to this fish is the red snapper.

Here is one of our meals. I don't remember which type of fish this was. I think it's king mackerel. The fish was always swerved with a side of garlic and chili sauce and salad. Also pictured is the sweet corn, potato and Singha, a popular Thai beer.

Money shot! The garlic chili sauce went so well with the fish.

Here is our meal from another night. I believe this fish is barracuda. 

Larger shot of the barracuda dinner with the ocean in the background. Perfect.

Bangkok, Thailand

Welcome back foodies.

Many of you may have noticed that I took a short hiatus from my blog. Part of the reason was that I ran out of original material to post (interesting Chinese food I mean) and then I sort of got lazy, I guess. Anyway the important thing is I am back and I have compiled lots of good material from my recent visit to Thailand! I am currently in Finland as well and will post some authentic Finnish meals in the near future.

This blog is titled "Authentic Chinese Food," but since my stay in China has come to an end I am going to make it simply a food blog because it's my blog and I can do that. I like food and so do you, why else would you be reading this?

So I'm walking around the night market my first night in Bangkok and I notice this nice colorful array of Thai spices and snacks. Thai markets are very chaotic, noisy and dirty so an organized stand like this stands out (no pun intended).

Okay THIS is my favorite food in Thailand. Huh? Not pad Thai? No. Then what is it? Sweet BBQ Chicken. Seriously? Yeah. Not exactly what you think of when someone says Thai food, but man do the Thai love their BBQ chicken. Street food is VERY popular in Thailand and can be found anywhere from crowded streets to dirt roads in the jungle. This kind of chicken is a popular item. It's an entire leg (sorry I only have this picture and not the food cart or the whole chicken but oh well, use your imagination) marinated in a sweet sauce then BBQ'ed. Tender, juicy, sweet and a little spicy of course because what would Thai food be without some chili pepper. I eat this with sticky rice (not pictures, sorry!) This was my first meal in Thailand and I won't forget it. 

Thai breakfast. Rice, cabbage salad with shrimp and spicy chicken with lima beans (I think). Rice is an essential food for the Thai. No rice, no meal. The boiled cabbage salad with shrimp was good, similar to Chinese cabbage. The chicken was A LOT spicier than I expected. To be honest, Thailand was a lot spicier than I expected (the food that is, what did think I meant?). It was good don't get me wrong, but I don't usually do spicy in the morning. It definitely woke up my sinuses up. Notice the small portion size. I mean the whole meal is just barely bigger than my palm, and though I do have big hands this was not enough. Overall a decent meal. 

This was really good. Zucchini and onions with scrambled eggs and two deep fried breaded ground pork balls. The pork balls were delicious. They were breaded with sesame seeds which gave them a nice flavor. Very good lunch. Cost about $1, not bad.

My First Chinese Wedding

I went to my first Chinese Wedding last week. It was more a wedding party than an actual reception. It was held in a hotel ballroom in Zhuji. There were a couple hundred people there to see the vice principle of my school get married. Me and my other foreign teacher friends were the only non-Chinese. There were many different acts during the party where friends and family got up on stage and gave a speech or sang a song. And of course there was lots of food. Check it out.

This is duck tongue. Yes, duck tongue. It was an appetizer. It was chewy and rubbery but once you bit off a piece it tasted kind of like duck. 

Close up, it really looks like a tongue.

Steamed and flavored dough. This was another appetizer. I'm not totally sure what it was, but my Chinese friend told me it was dough. It was steamed and marinated in some sauce. Tasted pretty good.

Fried prawn. Full shell on, fried in some kind of garlic sauce with sesame seeds. The shells are so soft you can eat the prawns whole without peeling them, even the heads. One of my favorite dishes from the night. 

LOBSTER. I've had a lot of crab in China, but this was my first time eating Lobster. Really soft and tender. People at my table didn't seem to crazy about it, so I ate about half the dish. Another one of my favorites

MUTTON. Always one of my favorite dishes in China. Usually I have it fresh off a BBQ, which is the best way to cook it in my opinion. This was cooked in a kitchen so it didn't have the same flavor you get from a BBQ. Still very juicy and tender.

Money Shot. Falling off the bone good. Pistachios on my plate were a snack. I had a couple.

This is a fish soup I believe. It didn't eat it so I have no comment. Sorry.

A whole fish. Bones and all, everybody picks away at it with their chopsticks. Very soft and tasty. Cooked in a ginger sauce.

I'm not sure what this dish is called but it's a very popular dish in China. There are fish balls, prawns and pork wrapped in thin tofu "paper". The fish balls are basically just fish meat rolled up into a meatball. The pork tofu wrap is really delicious.

 Seared beef. Soft and chewy and really tasty.

Here is a tofu soup. I didn't try it but Chinese people love it.

Here we all are in the middle of dinner. Gnawing away at our food, drinking, laughing, chatting, but mostly eating.