Much of the food on the menu seemed like the kind of cuisine Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala might eat - a selection of Indian influenced curries and vegetarian dishes. There were also a number of Chinese dishes, but I did not come to Tibet to eat sweet and sour chicken! But really, what do I know about Tibetan food? Absolutely nothing. So I ask our very kind waiter to make some suggestions. He says, "Everything is good!" Thanks, that's helpful. We started off with the veggie momos, which are like dumplings. Tasty!
For our entrees we chose chicken chili stir fry and broccoli/cauliflower saute. They actually turned out to be very similar dishes, but both were delicious. I do wish we would have had better guidance with ordering more traditional food. Oh well. Next time I will definitely try a curry dish and something with noodles.
The most noteworthy item on the menu was the Tibetan tea. I love tea and I'll try anything...so I ordered the Tibetan tea. The waiter looked a little hesitant and asked, "Have you had it before? Do you know what Tibetan tea is?" I answered no...but you know, when in Rome. He proceeded to tell me it had butter in it. Cool. I like tea, I like butter. I'll probably like butter tea. When it finally arrived at our table I poured each of us a cup. It smelled ok, but it was this weird grayish/brown color. I tentatively took a sip while the waiter anxiously waited to see my reaction. I had to act cool because he was watching me! I didn't want to offend him, even if it tasted gross; it was a lot of pressure. The verdict: it was incredibly rich, slightly oily and kind of salty. Interesting mixture. I think there was a pinch of black tea in there somewhere. According to Wikipedia it's made with yak butter...not sure if our tea had yak butter. I hope so. I guess I can see how this would be a popular drink with the nomads in the cold, mountainous regions of central Asia. But it's also not hard to see why its appeal has yet to spread beyond Tibet. To be honest, it's really not that bad. Perhaps I just need to adjust my notion of what tea is.
After dinner we stopped by Juniors for a bit. I was hoping to finally meet Monty's girlfriend Kristina but she didn't end up coming. Monty and I had an interesting conversation. Sometimes it amazes me that we get along so well because our brains work so differently. I run on emotion; Monty runs on logic. It's a good thing though because we challenge each other to see life through a different lens. Juniors had an interesting crowd last night. There were a bunch of hot guys there for once. Did I get any pictures of them? No. But I did get a picture of this old guy playing the accordion. Only at Juniors...
I can't believe that today is the last day of January! Besides being the last day of the month, it is also Sonny's birthday. This is the best picture I have of him because apparently he doesn't like to look directly into my camera. Happy Birthday Sonny!
