When the weather gets cold, survival instincts step forward.
I can appreciate the warmth-giving calories in bocha ($1.25), but I may never acquire a taste for butter salt tea. It tastes mostly of butter, and then salt, thinned down by an otherwise unnoticeable tea.
Nepali and Tibetan food often lacks nuance, so every little discovery is welcome, like the enticingly crisp edges on the fried chicken-and-herb dumplings called chasha momo (below; also available steamed; $6.75). Shapta ($10.50), beef sauteed with ginger, garlic, and onion, had a little bite that slowly grew more insistent; luksha shamdey ($7.99), lamb curry with potatoes, shallots, scallions, was unrepentingly mild.
Service is genial if slow; this small restaurant can be overwhelmed by takeout and delivery orders that keep the front windows steamed all evening.
Himalayan Café
78 East 1st St. (First Ave.-Ave. A)
212-358-0160
Closed Monday
