On the basis of this week’s experience, Tibetan food seems to be a combination of Indian and Chinese—the latter being the dominant influence. One of the signature dishes is momos, aka steamed dumplings like you’ll find in most Chinese restaurants but with greater variety of fillings. Apparently the truly authentic filling is yak meat, but Tibet’s Corner understandably lacks a good source for it and substitutes hand-ground beef, pork, or chicken. There’s also a vegetarian version, with peanut butter providing the protein.

Noodle dishes are also featured; the menu simply refers to the noodles as spaghetti-like and "Tibetan" (I assume these are two different types of noodles). The same beef or pork or chicken choices are available.

Other items on the menu include meat and vegetarian dishes. It’s hard to tell from the menu, but my guess is these are sautéed and similar to stir-fries. The meat options include mutton (rare here, probably common in Tibet) and shrimp (exactly the opposite).

The menu also lists a few appetizers and a couple of soups. We started our multicourse meal by splitting a spicy chicken appetizer, the jhasa khatsa. It consisted of pieces of chicken breast sautéed with onions and sliced green chilies. The chicken was rubbery but the dish had zip and piquancy. The chilies hadn’t been cleaned of their seeds, so this dish isn’t for those who always order their Chinese or Indian food mild.

We followed the starter with a soup each. I got the sha, which turned out to be very much like a hot-and-sour Chinese soup, except I usually find the latter too thick and viscous whereas the consistency in this case was more, well, souplike. The broth included pieces of tofu and mushrooms and you get your choice of meat (pork, beef, chicken). The menu promised peas as well but I didn’t find any in my bowl.

For my main selection, I had the thukpa ngopa, or fried Tibetan noodles with vegetables and choice of meat. The choices included lamb in this case and this not being something one normally finds in a Chinese restaurant I went with it. Otherwise, however, I thought the dish to be very similar to a lo mein—and not the best exemplar of one either. It was oversalted but otherwise bland. I took advantage of the hot sauce that came with B’s momos to spice it up. Speaking of the momos, the one I had consisted of a nugget of a ground-meat-and-herbs mixture encased in a pocket of dumpling dough. It would be difficult to make a meal of several of these; they’re better suited for starters in my opinion.

For dessert we split one order of the ngar chu, a dense square bar made of nuts, raisins, sour cream, and butter, all cooked down to a desiccated, chewy texture, and served with a honey-citrus drizzle. This was different and delicious, the highlight of the meal for me.

The restaurant wasn’t exactly overrun with customers, and B and I were able to have a brief chat with the proprietor, a good-looking guy who looks like he came from the high steppes of Tibet (if Tibet has steppes, that geography lesson is kind of hazy). According to him, business isn’t doing too well right now, although dinners are better. A new menu is in the works; they’ll be adding several new dishes and taking out several as well. The current menu wasn’t carefully thought out but rather made up by his brother-in-law at the last minute, the night before they opened. A liquor license should also be awarded soon. I would recommend a visit once these changes are made.

We sat in the front room of the restaurant, the short leg of an L-shaped interior. The walls are painted ochre and deep-red. A skylight lightens up what would otherwise be a dark space. There’s the odd mask on the wall and a suitably edifying saying by the Dalai Lama (sorry, can’t recall what it was), but this isn’t one of those places that overadvertise their provenance.

I remember another chapter from that same geography textbook; one that didn’t inculcate any particular desire to visit the part of the world described. I think the title was "Breadbasket to the World," referring to the wheat fields of central Canada and north-central U.S. Well, I’m (t)here, more or less, but Tibet seems a bit closer now.

On the odd chance that A reads my review he’s going to inquire, with raised eyebrows, what scout troop? And well he might because I had lunch twice this week at Tibet’s Corner; once with A and the second time on Saturday with another friend. The scout troop was present on Saturday but missing for the official Lunch.

The location is the old Hurree Singh Caribbean restaurant on Hennepin. It doesn’t surprise me that old Hurree is out of business. The last time I eat there with some work colleagues a man walked in and demanded that Hurree make immediate payments on some past due bill. It was excruciatingly embarrassing for all concerned and we pretended not to hear or see anything. Here’s hoping that Tibet’s Corner doesn’t go the same way since A & I were the only diners present. Talking to the proprietor who runs the place with his sister and brother-in-law things are a lot better on the weekends but I was there on Saturday and until a gaggle of girl scouts showed up the place was deserted.

As you walk in a portrait of the Dalai Lama greets you along with a map of Tibet and a bulletin board listing a Tibetan day of resistance (to the Chinese one would imagine – are you listening George Dubya?). The colors are the same as the Tibetan national flag: dark red, yellow and blue. The dining space is L shaped and can seat twenty plus in comfort.

Tibetan food is an interesting mix of Chinese, Nepalese and Indian and I wonder how much Indian influence has crept into the food because of the large Tibetan Diaspora in India. The menu, which is hastily put together we are told, is extensive, not so much in the area of starters, but in the variety of momos (dumplings), thukpa (noodles) and sha-khalak (meat), There are three appetizers: shoko stuffing (potato stuffed with batter and fried), and jasha khatsa (spicy chicken). We shared an order of the jasha khatsa, which was fiery hot and excellent! The chicken pieces were covered in a thin batter; the spice came from the peppers included with the dish. For our second course I had the dhaly soup, a watery lentil soup cooked Indian style with turmeric, coriander and garlic. Indeed I almost thought I was eating dahl cooked South Indian style. A had the other soup on the menu, sha soup, which can be had with your choice of meat. I chose from momos for my entrée. Momos are specialty Tibetan dumplings; they differ from their Chinese cousins, the dumpling, by being rounder and the crepe has more of a separation from its meaty heart. You have to be careful as you bite into them, as the girl scouts found out on Saturday, because you can squirt yourself (or your neighbor) with a stream of hot juice. The waiter (and owner) recommended the momos with ground beef and that’s what I had. Eight dumplings can become monotonous in short order, even with the spicy sauce used as a relish. Momos are traditionally filled with yak meat but this being Minnesota—notoriously short on yaks—the meat choices are limited to beef, pork and chicken. There are a couple of vegetarian momos as well; one of them includes peanut butter with the vegetables. A had a noodle dish, which I tasted and quite liked. We finished the meal with a dessert: ngar chu, a square of nuts, raisins and sour milk all deep fried in butter. I was once again reminded of Indian halwa. This was the end of the official lunch and had I not returned on Saturday my rating for food would have been lower. On Saturday I decided to order from the sha-khalak (meat dishes) portion of the menu. I had the meal version of the appetizer that we had had earlier, jasha khatsa, it was a larger portion of chicken served with white rice. The rice took some of the heat from the chicken and when eaten with the tomatoes and green peppers it was absolutely delicious. My companion had another chicken dish, jasha drodhue, this too was excellent, the chicken tender and flavorful.

Tibet’s Corner is an example of a restaurant being run on a shoestring budget by people who are obvious amateurs. Supposedly the menu was made up the night before the restaurant was to open. A beer and wine license will help because the location will naturally attract people. Hopefully the food will catch on because it is interestingly different from either Chinese or Indian food. Some marketing ploys need to be adopted to attract more customers. May I suggest Lost Horizon (The James Hilton book) and Yoga be used as inspiration.

B