Mom, Do I Get My Dessert Now?

Still getting the hang of posting photos - these appear in reverse chronological order. We just got back from a rare meal out, courtesy of my in-laws at Madison's Nepalese institution, Himal Chuli. The place has been operating for as long as I've lived here, which is going on twenty-plus years, and it has a sort of careworn authenticity about it. I've historically ordered the same thing every time I go there, operating on the "if it ain't broke" principle, because what I order - momochas - are the thing most people kvell about when they talk about Himal Chuli. The sweet waitress very earnestly tried to take six-year-old Ike's order first, and he credibly and seriously began ordering for himself a dish from the menu he had selected - i.e., not the kid-friendly dish Caleb and I had pre-chosen for his meal. He had ordered chicken sikar, which I then decided to have so that we could share it, and it's pictured above in its before and after states. This dish was so very tasty - it was listed as "popular chicken sikar" on the menu, and I can see why. Nothing novel, just general curry-like tastiness with lots of flavor but no real heat, the perfect thing to eat on a cold day like today.

Right now, Madison is covered in a thick, glossy sheet of ice and the cold has that peculiar quality that can only be described as "bitter." We wouldn't have left the house at all if not for the in-laws' visit. The experience was something like a sauna - plunging ourselves into the freezing outdoors to go consume Himal Chuli's food, which is the alimentary equivalent of antifreeze: steaming bowls of dal, steaming cups of tea, steaming everything. Except the lassis, which the boys are pictured draining in the above photo. In the kid-adventuring department, the meal was a resounding success. Ike polished off his half of the sikar and Oscar demolished two samosas, which he had never tried before. The dudes did us proud, although Osk may be suffering from culinary whiplash after consuming two pepperoni-pizza Hot Pockets for lunch before dining on authentic vegetarian Nepali cuisine for dinner.