newa in the tenderloin...have i got some spicy s**t for you!!

Ah, what do rain days engender? Laziness! Though I can't say I actually need an excuse for it. But what better way to brighten up a dark day than chowing down on some delivery from GrubHub. This time I came across something completely out of the box, Nepalese food! Yep, every country has its own cuisine and Nepal's seems vaguely similar to India's but me and the SO were willing to give it a shot. The place was called Newa and it is in the Tenderloin, which makes it the perfect spot for ordering take out and not actually going there!

Since I had never tried this spot before I stayed close to what folks were calling their specialties and ordered up a couple of appetizers and a couple of mains to try.

First up is a vegetable samosa, something I'll say falls on the Indian side of things. Deep fried pastry filled with spicy potatoes and peas. These things were huge, plus, considering they were delivery, they still had some crunch to them. The filling had just a little kick to it. It was basically like having deep fried mashed potatoes. I will say it did not come with a dipping sauce, which it probably could have used. Still, it was pretty tasty.

Next we have chicken momo, evidently one of the most popular dishes in Nepal, so their website says. Looks a lot like a potsticker to me so we will put this on the Asian side of Nepalese food. The country does border many countries so I'm guessing it has been influenced by multiple cultures. It comes in 2 versions--steamed and fried. I figured we already had fried so I got steamed. The are bigger than standard potstickers but the filling is kind of the same. Ground chicken mixed with some chopped chives and cabbage. They were definitely good and meaty and came with a slightly spicy sweet dipping sauce, kind of like a duck sauce with a tiny bit of heat. I do like potstickers though sometimes the outer shell can seem a tad gummy. It wasn't so bad on these, they did do a better job of steaming and it was certainly not lacking in filling. Considering some I've had in this town, they were good, though I would be interested in trying the fried version.

Our first entree was sukuti--that's lamb jerky with green peppers, onions and tomatoes. AND A WHOLE LOT OF SPICE FIRE!! Honestly, when I ordered it, I thought I had chosen medium spicy and if this was medium, then I'm a spice wuss. Even the SO thought it was spicy. It was in the nostril clearing, eyes watering range for both of us. You can see the pepper seeds in the picture above, something else they didn't skimp on. In order to be able to taste (ever again) I did rinse off a bit of the lamb jerky just so I could see what it was like. And it tasted like....jerky. I would not have been able to tell you if it was lamb or beef, but it was smoky and chewy like a good jerky should be. As for the rest of the dish, all I can say is, if you wanna feel the burn from your tongue to your belly, this is definitely the dish for you.

We finished things off with some chicken chow mein, another dish listed as "very popular." Noodles, chicken, cabbage, green onions, onions and some carrots. You definitely get your money's worth here. There was enough to share and have some left over for lunch the next day. large chunks of chicken, copious amounts of noodle and not the severe burn of the sukuti. There was a bit of spice, but really just enough to make it interesting, not melt your taste buds. It was like take out comfort food on a cold rainy day. Tucking into a pile of only slightly greasy chicken and noodles. We both liked this dish.

I know what you are thinking (or maybe it was just me) that is an awful lot of brown food! Well, yes it was and the majority of vegetables were onions and cabbage. But hey, they are still veggies, right? Still, for the most part, it was all pretty tasty and we both decided we order take out from Newa again. I'm not sure I would venture into spice town, I don't know that my stomach good handle Nepalese spice, but the other stuff had just the right amount to make it tasty and interesting enough to get again. So next time a rainy day rolls around (like the last few days have been) think about delivery from Newa, just make sure you know your spice level going in, your tongue and tummy will thank you later.