Date: 19 Aug 2018
Venue: Rodeo Drive, Gurgaon

Look “North East” has been the slogan for some time now. There are North East tourism fairs, crafts fairs and even awareness camps for people from this part of India. And yet there is just so much we do not know about the culture in this region. For example – the food here is a lot more than momos as we realised during our recent dinner at Tashi Dalek, Unitech Rodeo Drive in South City II, Gurgaon.

It is a small unassuming place in this community market. However, once we saw their menu we were all curious. There were momos of course. But then there were many items which sounded completely from Mars. We had to seek the assistance of Akash, the owner and his team (his wife is the chef here) while ordering.

Let’s talk about the momos here. We had vegetable(these double decker momos looked beautiful and unique), chicken and pork versions. The pork momos blew our mind away. The stuffing was juicy, seasoned just right and didn’t fall off the jacket. If you are ok with pork, pork momo is a must have. We also had a fried version of the momos – Shafaley. This was shaped like a kachori and had a chicken filling. Quite deep-fried and if steamed momos seem bland, this is your dish.

Pork as we have seen is a popular meat in Sikkim and other North East states. We had pork ribs for main course and this preparation was different from what we have had at many other places. For one it was moderately cooked – not overdone or charred. This helped in retaining the juices. There was no fibre and the bone came out very easily. It was a generous serving that filled us. The greens on the side helped to complete the dish. Next we requested for some tingmo bread that came with Pork-Shapta made of stir fried vegetables and pork pieces. We liked the freshly baked bread.

All throughout the meal, we were munching on pieces of Crispy Lotus Stem with Honey Chilly Dressing. This came as a starter but we loved its sweet but mild taste, topped with sesame seeds, and kept having this till the end. This is another must try here, and trust us; it is quite different from what we have had elsewhere.

Our opinion on dessert Banana Toffee with Vanilla Ice Cream & Chocolate Sauce is a little divided. One of us thought that the banana chunks were deep fried and made the dessert very heavy. This seemed to work well for the other. He thought the sweet banana fritter coated with toffee chunks was a cool twist to this dish. The ice cream helped in balancing the taste. As a result he happily polished off most of the dessert.

And this is what we got to say about this place – happiness. Apparently “Tashi Delek” means “May you achieve definitive goodness”. That’s some deep philosophy. Yet these chappies at Tashi Delek restaurant seems to have approached this idea through their freshly cooked good food. It is quite the soul food variety which makes you happy. Not fancy, rather simple and very grounded. That’s what we loved about our Tashi Delek dining experience that evening.