East End Eats XXIII: Amma Momo House

 

 

Checking out another spot five minutes from my house, and another cuisine I'm totally unfamiliar with. 

Amma Momo House, by their own description, offer a mix of Indian, Chinese, Hakka and Nepali dishes. I had to look up what a momo actually is, discovering it's a type of dumpling. 

This will sound insane, but I'm not a super huge fan of dumplings. To be fair, I haven't had one in a very long time and probably never tried an elite one. Regardless, I was in the mood for something a little more saucy and complex anyway... 

...so yes... it's yet another curry.

Hey though, this is only the third one I've done, and the first chicken one! I previously reviewed a lamb korma at Cinamon Indian Bistro (totally excellent) and a lamb saag at Nepal Curry House (very good) back in May of 2020. You know, nine years ago.

This one from Amma was very different than either of those offerings. Simply billed as their "House Special Chicken Curry), this sauce has more of a tangy flavour than those creamily bitter Saag or decadently rich Korma dishes. It also has a lot of little touches going on (as the photo shows) with topped green onions, various herbs I can't entirely identify (cilantro? thyme? some other kind of chive?), pepper seeds and some assortment of seasonings. This sauce itself isn't as thick as those other ones I reviewed (and do go read em again, wink wink) but fortunately all this extra "stuff" also adds texture to the base and prevents it from being at all watery. 

You also might think there are carrots in there from the photo (I did at first) but nope those orange chunks are the chicken pieces submerged below. Yeah, I get it... the lightning in my place sucks... I've been stuck inside here so long I've become too used to it. 

Spice-wise, I opted for "medium" (I prefer not blasting my taste buds when trying a new spot) and this had some pleasant sweet kick to it, mostly thanks to that roast pepper taste with a bare pinch of heat. The chicken itself would be the biggest weakness: it was merely ok. Tender enough to absorb some of the curry sauce, but there wasn't anything particularly distinctive about it.. a bit like if it had been cooked separately but then added afterward to order, rather than slowly stewed with the sauce. 

My final verdict would be... fairly good. The meat this time was mediocre, but I would go again to try something else and most of that is because of the curry sauce... just solid quality stuff with a lot of flavour variety to it.