Namaste, Lakewood, CO

I had an interesting dining experience Tuesday during my Denver business trip at a place called Namaste in Lakewood. Namaste is an Indian and Nepali restaurant. I've never been to Nepal before, and for those of you who are geographically challenged, Nepal is that little tiny nation north of India up in the Himalayas where Mount Everest is located. My waiter was very nice! He is from Nepal, and has lived in the Denver area for three years. He was almost tall, had features that resembled Chinese, had a big beautiful smile, and the most unusual light brown eyes. We chatted a bit during the meal, and I discovered that he is single, he has a college degree in humanities from back in Nepal and he does volunteer work with the children's hospital in Denver helping out with wheelchair sports.

I had him pick a traditional Nepal dish from the menu, since I've had tons of Indian food before. He selected the chilli chicken, which was a stewed dish with bite-sized chunks of chicken, sliced rings of onion, horizontal slices of a meaty pepper of some sort (authentic?? I didn't recognize it as one of the standard Mexican peppers), and a little bit of diced potato-like root, all enriched with a bit of tomato paste, and served with a big mound of a basmati-type rice. He also selected a parantha bread, which is a large, round, leavened, pita-like, flat bread which had been quartered, and which he encouraged me to tear into pieces and use to eat the food, instead of using silverware. I really liked the chicken. I'd ordered it with "medium" spice, not knowing how hot their hot was, and I could easily have kicked the heat up another notch. The thing I liked about the dish, though, was that the spice combinations had far fewer ingredients than are used in India, and I didn't have the feeling of being overwhelmed with spices as I often do in Indian establishments. This was much simpler, much cleaner, if you will, while still being complex.

Even though the classic Indian dessert, kulfi, was invented in the Himalayas (kulfi is the original ice cream, first made with Himalayan snow and flavored with pistacchio nuts), the waiter informed me that it isn't eaten in Nepal unless one goes to an Indian restaurant, and that desserts are not common at all, especially since no fruits can be grown in the country. I drank a Nepalese version of chai with Nepalese tea, milk, and only a very light hint of spice, throughtout the meal.