LAPHING: Tibetan street food

Laphing, super easy to eat, palatable in taste, range of different flavours, the most try food.

A cold jelly noodle dish - originally called liang fen is Sichuan cuisine which wouldn't traditionally be made at home. It is cool and spicy dish, especially refreshing in summer. It looks like a soft noodly dish served usually with a sour taste soup but there is also a dry version of it. This is not a noodle actually. Laphing itself is a very bland but the entire dish is full of flavors, really spicy and sour. We can get a hint of garlic, chilli,vinegar and salt, not to overpowering but the entire dish gives a spicy taste inside the mouth; it's tsunami of flavors.

Laphing is actually a Northern chinese cuisine known as liangfen, which literally translates to cold noodle. Liang means cold and fen is a jelly like eatable substances. This dish travelled to Nepal with Tibetan and Chinese people who later setteled in Boudha. There are plenty of eateries around the hidden valleys and streets of boudha that serve laphing. You will see many eateries and stalls serving white and yellow laphing. In weekends, all these eateries are packed, with largely young people, eating laphing.

Therefore, Spicy cold mung bean noodle is a street food that can be eaten with red pepper, chilli, ciantro and green onion sauce. Noodles  have a slippery texture and served with a soy sauce gravy. It is the most try food. Those who hasnt try this yet, should try it at least once!!

MOMOS: The Himalayan Dumplings

Its sour, its spicy and its momo, the most popular dish of Nepal. I only wish I had tried more new things but I blame that on the momos. They are bite size dumplings made with spoon full of stuffing wrapped in a dough. Momos are usually steamed; though sometimes fried or steam fried.The fillings of meat or vegetables become esculent as it produces an intensibly flavoured, sealed inside the wrappers.

Smooth and white outside , a delicious bite sent a cloud of steam out and revealed a delightful ball of light and spicy mince, nestled inside its smooth shell. The meat inside provides a kick of spice, and a rich looking bowl of sauce or momo dip on the plate adds a punch on mouth. The momo dip is the hero of the entire dish. Once its inside the mouth, it just oozes with all that meat juice and not to forget, the momo dip, its sour, spicy and goes perfectly with momos.

How to prepare momo??

The dough is rolled very thin .The filling is placed at the center and then momo is shaped and sealed into small packets leaving some space for it to fill with prof that collects during the steaming process.

Since this dish is  popular among the Newari community of kathmandu valley, one prevelent believe is that newari  traders brought momo techniques. However, the momo has since evolved to shoot the Nepali people.