Everest on Grand

We set out on our expedition to scale Everest in a rusty Toyota loaded with five famished explorers and a trunkful of climbing rope. I could not help but feel underequipped, since weeks of fruitless searching had turned up no Sherpa guides anywhere in the metro area, not even in the yellow pages. St. Paul can be harsh, unfamiliar terrain, and I think it unwise to travel there without experienced direction. My navigator suggested that I instead find Grand Avenue on a road map “like normal people do,” and after careful consideration, I complied. Our gamble paid off. Everest on Grand turned out to be a cozy Nepali and Tibetan eatery across from Kowalski’s Market. Though our servers were a bit slow, they were attentive, friendly, and willing to answer that most uncomfortable of menu-related questions—“and how do you pronounce this?” Half our party ordered momo, a meat-filled dumpling, but only one went for new gustatory territory and got the yak momo. It is perhaps the only exotic meat we’ve tasted that does not taste like chicken. It’s like beef, but sweeter, and well complemented (concealed?) by a spicy tomato-herb sauce. The rest of our team, a motley assemblage of architects and teenage vegetarians, found satisfaction in the many tasty no-meat dishes such as aaloo-dam (potatoes, onions and tomato in gravy) and jogi-tarkari, a vegetable curry. For desert, booniya and lal mohan—small, light confections so sugary sweet we could already feel the sting of the dentistry bills. Everest on Grand, (651) 696-1666, hotmomo.com


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