A distant mountain range crossing India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, and China. Earth’s highest peaks  of immense altitude, including the highest of them all - Chomolungma, which translates to “Mother  Goddess of the World”. You can also call it Mount Everest (if you’re nasty), but I personally have  no desire to keep on doing that in the name of some British military dude who served as India’s  “Surveyor General” from 1830 to 1843, and who has never even seen the mountain, nor had any  connection with it whatsoever. But if you wanna be colonial like that, you can totally do that, we  live in Luxembourg after all. 

Far from Chomolungma, far from Nepal, or Bhutan, on a hill of not too immense altitude, on 8, Rue  de Rollingergrund, lies another Himalaya, although this one is much easier to access, especially if  you have good connections with our metropolitan tram. There’s also another location at 4b Dernier  Sol. Despite the pandemic crises hitting the hospitality sector badly, the Nepalese & Indian  restaurant is still going strong. No wonder - have you tried their momos?

We were welcomed with a lot of courtesy and respect. The service was fast and all in all delightful,  despite the lunch rush. We tried each other’s dishes to expand our repertoire, but still remained  white as hell defending our European, chicken-filled honour: Butter Chicken, Chicken Vindaloo, Chicken Tandoori, and finally my pick: the Fish Curry. Guys, when I tell you this Fish Curry was the best curry I’ve ever had, I’m not kidding, okay? I am not fucking kidding. It’s just the most  eye-rolling, palatable curry-experience I got the opportunity to be a part of. The soft pieces of fish  are so juicy and fall apart so easily, they could pass for our beloved chicken. A few years later, when  I was in an adult, but not money-having phase of my life, I had to work side jobs to make rent, with  no stable housing, nor a full-time job. One day, I managed to get enough hours in this random  restaurant (a whole other story), and I had enough money to celebrate my hard work and treat  myself a little. Guess what I went for (to split with my roommate while watching reality TV)? You  guessed it, the Fish Curry. 

To my surprise, I later found out that Himalaya (1 & 3) has not been as foreign to me all these years  as I thought. A friend of mine I’d often visit would always order from his favourite Indian place,  and I later realised that it was no other than my beloved establishment. This means, I ate their food  on numerous occasions, without even knowing that’s where the food was from. Law of attraction: I  don’t chase, I attract. And what I attracted was delicious food: fresh Cucumber Raita, crispy Papadoms, Pakoras, Samosa, and mouth-watering Onion Bhajee. But let me tell you about their momos, especially the ones with lamb. The home-made chutney - to die for. The crafted, steamed  dough-coat of the dumpling - perfection. The ground-lamb filling - Holy Shit. You just want to  swallow them one by one, like that vacuum cleaner in the Teletubbies. Unfortunately, I don’t think we ever ordered anything other than the chicken dishes already mentioned above, maybe with an  addition of (Chicken) Tikka Masala. Wish I had something more original to say.