#navbar-iframe { display: none; }

« Home | BLACK by ezard at The Star, Pyrmont, Sydney » | Project 8 Cafe, Ultimo » | Izakaya Fujiyama, Surry Hills » | Caysorn, Haymarket » | Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards 2011: Food Blog ... » | Quay, Sydney » | No Name Italian Restaurant, Darlinghurst » | Gastro Park, Potts Point » | Sonido!, Fitzroy, Melbourne » | Cyprus Community Club, Stanmore - Aphrodite Restau... »

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Everest Kitchen, Marrickville



It's easy to dismiss Nepali food as being 'kinda like Indian' but there are just as many differences as similarities. Although both cuisines feature plenty of curries, Nepalese dishes tend to be less spicy, and based around tomatoes, not yoghurt or coconut milk or cream.

Keen to find out more, I headed to Everest Kitchen in Marrickville for this month's Eat This column in Time Out Sydney.


Eat this... 
Thaal

Thaal traditional Nepalese dhindo set $21.95
with goat curry, stir fried mustard leaves, radish pickle, tomato salsa, pappadum, lentils and dhindo

WHAT IS IT?
Thaal offers the perfect introduction to Nepalese cuisine: an all-in-one meal of meat, vegetables and dhal curry served in small kachaura bowls and presented on a metal tray.

WHERE CAN I GET IT?
Everest Kitchen in Marrickville is a modest suburban restaurant committed to serving traditional Nepalese dishes. Multi-coloured prayer flags and lanterns hang over a crowd that includes Nepalese families and curious locals. A huge LCD screen has looping footage of life in the Himalayas but to be honest, it’s more distracting than atmospheric. Service can be a little slow at times so turn up expecting a leisurely meal.


Traditional Nepalese entree set $19.95
with momo dumploings, char-grilled goat, grilled chicken salad,
crispy fried soy bean salad, beaten rice and potato salad


WHAT'S IT LIKE?
Choose your own curry for your thaal dinner set ($18.95–$24.90) from a long list of options that includes prawn, fish, goat, lamb, chicken, pork, deer and vegetable. When your mini banquet arrives, pick your way around the plate by scooping up mouthfuls of rice with curry or bhuteko saag sautéed silverbeet. A deep-fried pappadum is light and crisp and the gold cup on your tray contains a thin lentil soup. Little saucers of pickled radishes, tomato chutney and a cool raita yoghurt and cucumber dip help refresh the palate.

ANY NEPALESE SPECIALTIES?
It’s worth trying the traditional Nepalese dhindo set ($18.95–$24.90) which comes with dhindo, a millet porridge that is more often found in Nepalese hillside villages than in Sydney restaurants. The porridge is definitely an acquired taste, with an odd, gluey consistency and sandy texture on the tongue, but it improves significantly if you eat it together with the curry. Dhindo is high is protein, and usually eaten in hilly or rural areas of Nepal where rice is difficult to cultivate.


Deer meat curry $19.95

ANYTHING ELSE?
Hook into the mriga masu ko tarkari, a tender deer-meat curry ($19.95), fragrant with fenugreek, cumin cinnamon and coriander. Sadeko bhatmas ($6.95) is a crunchy salad of deep-fried soy beans mixed with red onion, chilli and spices. And you can’t go past the national dish of momo ($8.95): silky steamed dumplings stuffed with buffalo meat and served with a fiery tomato sauce.


Nepalese garlic bread $3.95





View Larger Map
The Everest Kitchen on Urbanspoon
314 Victoria Road, Marrickville, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9569 7654

Opening hours:
Monday to Sunday 12noon-10.30pm

This article appears in the November 2011 issue of Time Out Sydney in my monthly Food & Drink column Eat This!  [read online]



More Time Out Sydney reviews:
Akash Pacific Cuisine, Liverpool (Fiji Indian cuisine)

ATL Marantha, Kensington (Indonesian fried chicken with edible bones)
Balkan Oven, Rockdale (Macedonian burek)
Cyprus Community Club Aphrodite Restaurant (roast baby goat)
Durban Dish, Baulkham Hills (South African cuisine)
Good Kitchen, Hurstville (Hong Kong cafe)
Hijazi's Falafel, Arncliffe (Lebanese breakfast)
Island Dreams Cafe, Lakemba (Christmas Islands cuisine)
Kambozza, Parramatta (Burmese cuisine)
La Paula, Fairfield (Chilean empanadas, lomitos and sweets)
Mario Tokyo Pizza (Bulgogi Korean pizza)
Olka Polka Bakery & Deli, Campbelltown (Polish cheesecake and rye bread)
Sea Sweet, Parramatta (Lebanese sweet kashta cheese burger)
Sizzling Fillo, Lidcombe (Filipino pork hock crackling)
Tehran, Granville (Persian cuisine)
Tuong Lai, Cabramatta (Vietnamese sugar cane prawns)
11 comments - Add some comment love

posted by Helen (Grab Your Fork) on 11/30/2011 08:09:00 am


11 Comments:

  • At 11/30/2011 8:40 am, Anonymous Chopinand @ ChopinandMysaucepan said…

    Dear Helen

    This is an interesting review. Fenugreek is such an under-rated ingredient when it can add another level of complexity especially in curries. I know Peter Kuruvita is a real fan of this ingredient for his Sri Lankan curries.

    Did the deer meat have a distinctive flavour of its own or did it taste anything like other red meats such as goat? I wonder where this restaurant or Nepalese food lovers would buy their deer meat from.

     
  • At 11/30/2011 9:03 am, Blogger joey@forkingaroundsydney said…

    The entree set looks really good; so much colour. Also love momo dumplings.

     
  • At 11/30/2011 9:11 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Funny, I reviewed a Nepalese restaurant a few days ago. This one, however, looks more authentic. Of course I'm not the right person to judge this because I haven't been to Nepal.

     
  • At 11/30/2011 9:14 am, Anonymous Hannah said…

    Oh, I love meals comprised of lots of little different parts! Wheeeee!

    P.S. I apologise for the inanity of my comment today. Brain so tired yes.

     
  • At 11/30/2011 9:29 am, Anonymous Dumpling Girl said…

    Love the generosity of the sauce over the momos in the first shot, never seen Nepalese food this colourful. Would love to check this place out soon.

     
  • At 11/30/2011 12:01 pm, Anonymous Nic@diningwithastud said…

    zomg that garlic bread looks fab! I've never eaten Nepalese food before. Will have to check this out

     
  • At 11/30/2011 4:41 pm, Anonymous catty said…

    I've never had Nepalese food but there is a restaurant in Newtown which I often wonder about. It does look like Indian but as you said there are many differences and most of which are probably in the ingredients or prep. Will have to keep Nepalese food in mind!

     
  • At 11/30/2011 11:46 pm, Anonymous Denny @ feedmycamera said…

    we take it for granted, but you bloody got to love Australia, We virtually have all types of cuisines from all around the world! I haven't tried Nepalese food before and to be honest, never thought about tasting it.

     
  • At 12/01/2011 10:38 pm, Anonymous The Food Sage said…

    My partner just said "oo" when he saw the first photo and i've never been able to tempt him to a Nepalese restaurant before. Great review. Thanks for the recommendation.

     
  • At 12/03/2011 6:19 am, Blogger Poorna Banerjee said…

    Down here in Kolkata, or Calcutta, India, momos are a hot street food favorite, and actually is a Tibetan Specialty also adapted by Nepali people. However, we do not use beef in India or Nepal. It is forbidden according to Hindu Law to eat Beef, and Nepal being a strictly Hindu country does not encourage killing of cows or buffaloes. Here the momos are essentially made of chicken, vegetables or goat meat, which is mutton to us. We don't eat sheep much, either. We prefer gram fed goat which is fabulously soft, buttery and our chosen meat.

     
  • At 12/03/2011 7:59 pm, Anonymous tania@mykitchenstories.com.au said…

    Nice thanks wondered what this place was like

     

Post a Comment

<< Home


      << Read Older Posts       |       >> Read Newer Posts