(This venue is closed.) The foundation of this off-menu Tibetan breakfast set ($6), in the pale green bowl, is paag. These tan lumps combine the roasted barley powder called tsampa, as well as butter, sugar, and tea, coaxed together with the fingers.
Recipes and mixologies vary. Often the liquid binder is bocha, or Tibetan butter tea. In this case I took up the option, offered by my server, to use an unadulterated black tea — "sweet tea," in her words. Another cup of this tea, with milk and sugar, sits to one side.
Customarily diners prepare their own paag, to taste. My server was kind enough to do this for me; barley powder doesn't play well with camera equipment. I did, then, eat with my right hand, employing lumps of paag to pick up shogo khatsa, the spicy potato dish at left. The small bowl of hot sauce proved superfluous.
Gangjong Kitchen
72-24 Roosevelt Ave. (72nd-73rd Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
347-848-0349
