Food Crawl: Humro Momo versus Momo Plaza

Humro Momo Entrance

One of the things I like about my city is the fact that you get good food in the strangest places. And strangest food in great places. Like, take this teeny tiny joint in Sudder Street that serves up Korean Kimchi. When I was first introduced to it, I went WTF, but soon recovered, and how!

And yes, the other day me and R (check out his blog, he’s a marvel if there ever was one) met up because we were both craving momos and we did not want to go to Blue Poppy for our regular fix. In fact, we wanted to experiment and compare.

The menu at Humro Momo.

Humro Momo has been a small, roadside eatery that has been serving up momos and other fried good stuff for a long time. I was curious, because the last time I’d eaten there I was in college (which was about 8 years back) and I was still a kid who had too little money in her pocket to afford anything better. Coming back here was like a sledgehammer of a nostalgic moment, and R was excited enough to come along (of course, it was HIS idea in the first place, but who’s complaining??)

Ahem. So, there the two of us went to check out the food. R, being the chef of the game, decided to make sure we compared food. As we walked over to Humro Momo, we were first assaulted by a heady aroma of good cooking food which left us salivating. Definitely a good sign.

The Chicken Momos

We entered, sat down on a shared table, ordered a bottle of water and rapidly told the waiter/cashier that we wanted a chicken steamed momo, a plate of chicken 65 and a plate of lemon paper chicken (I’m absolutely sure that was what was written on the menu, NOT LEMON PEPPER mind you!!).

The food arrived within record time, one after the other. The first to arrive were the momos (I assumed because they’d been cooked before). Truth be told, I didn’t particularly like the momo much, I found the skin of the momo too thick, and well, that turned me right off because I am a thin skin kind of a girl. However, the soup they served with the momos was quite right, a thin, clear broth. I polished that off leaving R to finish the momos.

Lemon Paper Chicken

Next came the lemon paper chicken. Okay, this dish had its pros and cons. The pros were the lovely sauce in which the chicken was tossed in as well as the veggies. The con was the chicken pieces. They had been cooked a while back, and was not crispy and fresh. Major con.

Chicken  65

The third item, Chicken 65 was my idea. Okay, I love this particular thing ever since I had it in Bangalore, a spicy concoction with curry leaves and mustard. Though what that was doing in Humro Momo I don’t know, but for me the spicy kick was perfect. Again, the chicken pieces had been fried much earlier on in the day which made it a major problem, but hey, the sticky gravy that came with it more than made up. I ended up giving up my spoon in favor of the finger to get to the sides of the bowl.

And well, we were not really thinking of going anywhere else at the point when we had entered Humro Momo, but now the naughty grin R quickly flashed me meant trouble. I raised my eyebrow back in question, and he looked at me and said, “Let’s go to Momo Plaza and eat the momos there”.

I was instantly sold.

I am pathetic, but there you have it.

So, we moved along, fueled by our food, and propelled by the promise of more. A short walk away was Momo Plaza (and yes, they don’t have chopsticks, I know, but Kolkata has these little quirks).

Menu Card at Momo Plaza

We entered, we seated ourselves, and then we ordered the pan fried momos and the chicken kothay.

Now, the chicken kothay is actually the pot stickers, semi fried dumplings, which has been steamed first and then their bottoms have been fried to perfection. I adore these. I am obsessed by these. And at Momo Plaza, I knew why I loved these so much.

Chicken Kothay

R was equally gushing about the pan fried momos, which actually had way too much gravy, I thought, but the gravy tasted gorgeous. I wanted to eat the gravy with fried rice. And yes, it was WAY better than the pan fried momos you get in Blue Poppy which I do not like because they are so sweet. Another winner was the sauce that was served here at the table. It was not too hot, but perfectly spiced with ginger and coriander, and was not sweet, which was an added bonus for me.

Pan fried Momo

At this point, we were already running a bit late, so we pushed off, right after I’d packed a Thukpa for The Sister to eat.

So, what’s the verdict? Well, I would have to say, Momo Plaza won, because the food there was so good! Later on I went back there to sample the pork, and the Pork was good. Good is an understatement actually. But if you think in terms of momos, then Momo Plaza it is.

Humro Momo

3, Subarban Hospital Road/ Lala Lajpat Rai Road, Kolkata – 700020

Momo Plaza

2A Subarban Hospital Road/Lala Lajpat Rai Road, Kolkata – 700020