My hands are my most important commodity. This week one of our menu boards fell hard onto my left thumb. It hurt a lot, but quite quickly my thoughts turned from the pain into concern for my momos. Dumpling-making was due to resume the following day, and I wasn't sure I'd be up to it. Hands play a hugely important role in all parts of the momo-making process - kneading and rolling out the dough - and the thumb is crucial in the last, and trickiest step: the pleating of the dough over the momo filling. In Tibetan kitchens we do not have the luxury of machines, and we rely heavily on our hands in general. Before the arrival of rice from China, Tibetan dishes were traditionally eaten with tingm
Dates and numbers are a wonderfully fluid thing in Tibet. For the record, I don't know my actual date of birth. In fact, I'm not even sure of the year of my birth. I do know that I was born in the year of the sheep, and this makes me either 27, 51 or 39. I'll leave that one with you. But even if we can narrow down my birth year, there will still be a discrepancy between how old I am perceived to be in Tibet vs how old that makes me here in the west. If I am 39 in western years then I would be considered to be 41 in Tibet, where people also count the nine months a child spends in its mothers womb, and then another year on top of this every New Year's Day. So I turned 41 last week. Or did I? T
Post from the heart. Our Taste Tibet pop up started last Thursday at East Oxford bakery cafe Silvie, and it was massive! Yeshi says he expected it. He remembers well the enthusiasm and support of our local East Oxford community back when we used to run a takeaway from our own home (we really did that). I was less confident of a runaway success. Plus, when I saw the mock-ups of these fabulous flyers from Bounce I knew that I wanted them, and I felt sure that others would feel the same. Yeshi told me not to post them. He feared large numbers on our opening night. Well, turns out he was right. We had a full house all evening, and another 35 or more peeps through the door for takeaway as well, f
Amazing news for momo fans! This Thursday, January 11th, marks the first of a new regular Taste Tibet pop-up night at East Oxford bakery cafe Silvie. Come and discover why the BBC Good Food Magazine calls us a "hidden foodie gem", and why we are one of the Guardian's Top Ten picks for Oxford! Our mouthwatering momo dumplings and legendary Himalayan curries will be in the house every Thursday evening between 6.30pm and 9.30pm. Eat in and enjoy a drink from Silvie's bar, or take away for a night at home. Long time fans of Taste Tibet may remember the day when we used to run a takeaway from our own home in East Oxford. Many of you can't make it to our regular Wednesday market stall in Oxford's
The people of Oxford have spoken. You guys love Taste Tibet, and Taste Tibet is expanding to meet demand! We need to put together a team of chefs and front of house staff to work with us at markets, pop ups, university college balls and summer music festivals. We are looking for full-time and part-time staff, as well as people who are interested in summer festival work only (May - September). Are you a customer who hates their current job and loves our food? Are you a chef who is seeking more of a challenge? Are you a lover of life who is looking for work that happens in the big outdoors? Do you love people? Markets? Festivals? We would love to hear from resourceful, flexible all-rounders, w
Have you resolved to find a new job in 2018, or to take up a new hobby? The bad news is that nobody is going to help you make it happen. The majority of people are so involved in keeping themselves out of trouble that they will not have the time or energy to give you the push that you need. But here's the good news, in our first uplifting blog post of the new year! Taste Tibet is proof as good as you are going to find it that whatever you want to do in life, you can do it, regardless of how things appear to be stacked for you. When Taste Tibet was born in the summer of 2014, neither me nor Yeshi had any relevant background in our new business area. We had conducted next to no market research
