MOMO galli

For starters,it is not as much of a staple in the Northeast as you think. Though often lumped under the unimaginative tag of Northeastern food,the regions cuisine varies strikingly from state to state. In Manipurs capital Imphal,restaurants serve unappetising momos: it is too removed from the local cuisine of fish and rice,as is the case in Tripura. In Shillong,you get some of the most delicious dumplings,meaty fillings in creamy,light shells,though it is not part of the local Khasi cuisine. A variant is the big momo,the size of a small cabbage,and filled always,without any concession to tamer palates with pork.

The dumpling is an important part of the diet of Arunachal Pradeshs Monpa and Sherdukpa tribes,who live in the West Kameng and Tawang districts that share a border with Tibet. Their version is usually stuffed with minced pork and mustard leaves or other green vegetables,and served with chilli paste. West Kameng is a mountainous region,snowed in for months,and not conducive for rice cultivation. The momo disappears from the local diet as you travel to Arunachals East Siang district,which borders Assam and is on the fertile plains of the river Siang. The staple here is rice.

Unlike the Chinese dim sum,made by dunking meat-filled balls in boiling water for less than a minute,the Monpa steam their momos. The Chinese dumpling has its origins in Shanghai and Peking and differs from the Indian in shape and size. The momos here are smaller and rounded; the fillings more various: prawn,chicken,pork,beef and vegetables. The Chinese use a different accompaniment: shredded ginger dipped in vinegar and soya sauce.

A feast in a Sikkim home means that the moktho,an aluminum momo steamer,is in business. The dumpling you get in Sikkim is a close cousin of the Tibetan momo. The great exodus from their homeland in the 1960s scattered Tibetans and their cuisine across India several settled in Sikkim,Meghalaya,the hill towns of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in Bengal,and Delhi.

In Sikkim,the momo has pushed the states traditional dish,hyontoen,off the plate. Hyontoen is made of millet flour,rolled like momos,stuffed with cheese and steamed. Today,few Sikkimese remember it but they take pride in their ability to prepare batches of delicious momos. Yishey D. Yongda,mother of two and a bureaucrat in Gangtok,uses her moktho on special occasions. Momo is a meal in itself and had with either red or green chilli paste,mixed with garlic or ginger. At home and in some restaurants,it is served with radish or cucumber salad. Beef and pork are traditional fillings; but chicken and vegetable momos are gaining ground. Restaurants in Gangtok such as House of Bamboo and Tibet Hotel are famous for chicken momos. Purists can only shudder in disbelief.

The momo started on its journey to the rajma-chawal lands of north India in the 60s. They were introduced to Delhi as an on-the-go snack by Tibetans. In the 70s,a brood of Nepali cooks took the dish out of Tibetan enclaves and onto the menus of tiny Chinese food joints that sprang up around the city. It was the opening of Dilli Haat in 1995 with stalls from several states that announced the meatier Northeastern version as a popular street food. In the last decade,the momos popularity has spread to other cities,as young people from the Northeast travelled to the mainland in search of education and jobs.

On its way,this simple,hardy food of the mountains has blended with the flavours it has met. Perhaps the strongest sign of its mainstreaming is that a large swathe of the urban workforce men from Bihar and entrepreneurs from Punjabhas taken to selling momos as a way out of economic hardship. There are as many twists as there are tastes paneer fillings and wheat dough,tomato chutney and clear,vegetable soup.

But there never has been enough reason to forgive that atrocity sold in Delhi tandoori momo,stuffed with paneer,baked in a tandoor and served with pudina chutney.
The writer is the author of The Essential North-East Cookbook