The momos at this East York restaurant are bursting with flavours, from tandoori to chili

Metro Morning's food guide Suresh Doss joins the program every week to discuss one of the many great GTA eateries he's discovered.

This week, he's feasting on Nepalese-style momos in Topham Park in East York.

Below is a lightly edited transcript of Doss's conversation with Metro Morning host Ismaila Alfa.

Alfa: So you're taking us to the Himalayas today?

Doss: The Himalayas, by way of O'Connor Drive in East York. But yes, in all seriousness, I'm taking you out for momos today. This is a favourite place of mine. But before we get to momos, I want to quickly highlight how quickly this little triangle of East York has formed its own culinary identity in the past few years. 

Victoria Park, St Clair East and O Connor Drive; I remember in my 20s, there was that one good pub, and one Chinese takeout spot. And the rest was this industrial mass with nothing really interesting to offer. And now, it's this quickly changing neighbourhood that is home to a growing Mexican, Indian and Southeast Asian population. No fewer than eight new restaurants have opened in the past two years. And at least a dozen pop-ups that are operating in the area. 

This is a neighbourhood to keep an eye on. So today we're talking about momos. It is said that nearly every culture on the planet has their version of a dumpling. We're talking about the ones that are adjacent to the ones that originated in Tibet — particularly Nepalese style momos, which are the spicier, more saucy and deeply flavoured counterparts to Tibetan momos. 

Rupa Pautel and Babu Gautam opened Momozone on O'Connor in January last year, literally days into our second lockdown. They wanted to highlight a style of momos that represented Babu's 20 odd years as a cook.

Babu cooked at a number of Indian restaurants and he's pulling in those flavours to traditional Nepalese momos.

A bit of context. When the pandemic hit, Babu lost his job as a cook. And he started cooking momos for the first time as a popup, on Facebook Marketplace. This was in Scarborough. It was an instant hit, but within that journey he would often meet customers that would ask for different variations of momos, types of momos you would find in New Delhi for example — a marriage of Indian spices and influences with Nepalese dumplings. 

He also got requests for tandoori momos, mirchi momos, momos stuffed with paneer and coated in a thick Manchurian sauce. So he started making them and has since carried those items on to the existing menu.

So a proper introduction to his cooking would be to get the momo platter, where you have four different styles of momos. You can choose your filling of chicken, vegetarian or paneer.  

And on this platter you'll have four different styles of Indian, Hakka and Nepalese momos, like the ones I mentioned. Accompanied with two chutneys: a tomato sesame chutney and a garlic chutney with chilies.

Alfa: Can you describe some of the flavour profiles of these momos?

Doss: So they are reminiscent of familiar Indian dishes, like the spices you would get when you have a tandoori chicken. Or the tomato and buttery qualities of a butter chicken or tikka masala sauce.

But picture these sauces, coating the outside of the dumplings, which contrast the delicate stuffing which doesn't have a lot of spice at all. Basically the momos are steamed and then cooked on high heat in a wok with the sauce that you choose.  

I would say my favourite versions are the chili momos, where the momos get tossed in this dark, rich chili and tomato sauce that clings on to the dumplings. There's also the traditional momo, the jhol momo, where the momos are served in a pool of peanut, sesame and tomato sauce. They're almost served like dumpling soup. 

Alfa: So Momozone is all about the momos, naturally, but are there any sides you recommend to go with the meal?

Doss: There are some great vegetarian dishes here. A favourite would be the chili cauliflower. So fried cauliflower florets that are tossed in the chili sauce, you can also get them in Manchurian sauce, which is phenomenal. 

The noodles, the chow mein, is also very popular. This is a common street food in the streets of Butwal or Kathmandu. Noodles cooked with vegetables and a chili sauce in the wok. It would be criminal as a local to not have some chow mein to go along with your dumplings.