Flavor is king at Nepalese eatery

Nizang-Himalaya has carefully preserved the Himalayan traditions and the standard of serving guests from all around the world.

Set up in a single level building, the decor is uniquely Nepalese, with photos, banners and artifacts from the country. Tucked away in one quiet corner of Dongchang Road, near Pudong South Road, the restaurant has two names, Nizang (Chinese) and Himalaya (Nepalese). The restaurant also has its own little brewery from where it serves beer and fruit beer.

Like all Asian food, Nepali cuisine has its regional variations with its simple and subtle flavors, and it's much influenced by its neighbors, China and India. The blend of common ingredients and spices like onion-garlic-ginger and cumin-coriander-turmeric, and some unique Himalayan herbs like timur and jimbu adds to the uniqueness of this cuisine.

From the long list of starters, soups and salads, we liked the samosas and spring rolls - and the Nizang salad with poached mutton and colorful mixed vegetables was a treat for the eyes and the taste buds.

We ordered two tasty "chili" preparations: boneless chunks of chicken marinated in soy sauce and cooked with green peppers, onions and tomatoes; and diced potatoes (aloo) deep-fried in batter and cooked with peppers, onion and garlic. In Nepal, the potato dish is made with boiled potato wedges that are deep-fried.

There is one combination meal that has characterized the country's cuisine: a simple meal combo of rice, lentils and seasonal vegetables - popularly called the daal, tarkari and bhaat. Daal is a very light lentil soup, sauteed with cumin seeds or onions; bhaat is starch-free plain white rice and tarkari is the generic name for the vegetable curry that is prepared with seasonal vegetables. Momo, another famed food - a Nepalese version of dumplings - surprisingly did not appear on the menu.

For the main course, we skipped the rice and ordered roti (whole-wheat flat bread) with daal, a creamy pureed spinach curry with diced homemade cottage cheese and mutton curry - an unusually light and tasty preparation of succulent pieces of mutton cooked in gravy of turmeric, cumin, coriander, onion, tomato and lightly flavored green chili. I ordered a chicken chow-chow - a sphagetti-like noodle dish with tasty shredded chicken (or beef) and vegetables.

For vegetarians, the plentiful options range from simple, lightly spiced potato curries to lentils and from the good old eggplant and cauliflower to a variety of mushrooms - all cooked in either Nepalese, Chinese or Indian style or a combination of all three.

Chicken ruled the meat section with a special dish of bhanta chicken, which was a very new kind of combination of eggplant and chicken cooked in spicy yellow curry. The tarkari that we ate was also served with chicken pieces substituting for the expected diced cottage cheese cubes. The beef meatball showed a Western influence, while the chili fish was authenticly Nepalese.

The restaurant also offers set meals at very reasonable price: Chicken kurma with rice (minced chicken curry), chicken chili rice and also mushroom curry rice. All the meals come with a soft drink of choice.

For dessert, I would have preferred sikarni, a fruit-based yogurt that is very typical of Nepal. But it was absent on the menu, so we settled for some fruit fritters - banana and apple - deep-fried and drizzled with honey.

IF YOU GO

Nizang-Himalaya

500 Dongchang Lu (Road) (near Pudong Nanlu), Pudong district, Shanghai.

021-5877-2262.

Average cost per person: 300 yuan ($48).

Recommended dishes: Chili Chicken, Mutton Curry, Pureed Spinach Curry with Cottage Cheese.