McLeod Ganj, known as Little Lhasa or Dhasa by Tibetans, has one of the largest population of Tibetan refugees, and is the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile. So we thought a lovely way to spend our morning and getting to understand the culture of Tibetans in Exile would be through the food.
We went down a little side street and found Lhamo’s Kitchen run by (who else) Lhamo, a very laid back and funny cooking maestro, who wears an apron over a wife-beater. You can’t get more authentic than that. Actually you can: his cooking school is in his living room. An interesting thing we learned about momos – stuffed dumplings – is that in Tibetan, “Mo” means ”tasty.” So, in effect, momo means “tasty tasty.” Very fitting if you ask us!
We learned to make traditional Tibetan momos with veggie fillings, but the momos can be stuffed with anything you like. To prove this point, Lhamo told us we could even put chocolate in it! Traditional fillings are mutton, potatoes, and Tibetan veggies. The fillings we used in our course were vegetable, cheese, and spinach.