Dumbbells and Drama

The baby sister has been a huge fan of momos all her life (I fail to get the obsession, I mean steamed white flour dumplings stuffed with vegetables/meat served with sauce fail to get me as excited as say a butter chicken would, you know what I mean?) But well, when Baan Tao at Hyatt Pune reached out to me for a Momo Festival, I decided to take the baby sister out on a momo date to have the night of her life.

I’ve always considered momos as snack food, and now in hindsight I think we should have gone a little more prepared (read hungry) for the festival. Don’t get me wrong here, it all went good. But eating 20 momos is not as easy as it sounds, a fact that we realized that night as we enjoyed a delicious dumpling dinner, not in the mood to miss out on anything.

That night we enjoyed all types of dumplings you could imagine; dumplings stuffed with chicken, shrimps, sea bass, dumplings made of carrot dough, beetroot dough, potato starch, dumplings served in soy sauce, open dimsums, the works! And we ate them all.

My personal favorite- the Sichuan Dimsum (I think this has something to do with the fact that I enjoy familiar flavours rather than experimenting with tastes; this one was a typical Oriental preparation made in soy sauce) The Cheung Fun came a close second, once again due to the fact that it was a familiar flavor. Made in a typical oriental style, this one was served in a truffle oil broth.

momo 4

By the time we reached dessert, there wasn’t much place left in our tummies. We managed to taste a bite each of the Pistachio Bao and Chocolate Bao. I’d go back for the chocolate bao, but I’ll still feel more comfortable sticking to the savoury baos if I had a choice.

momo 1 momo 2

The dessert that caught our attention was the chocolate brownie served with mascarpone cheese and honeycomb crumble. Knowing how stuffed we were, I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly we finished the dessert.

The Momo Festival at Baan Tao is a refreshing change from the usual dining experience.  You can walk in and choose a plate of dumplings of your choice from the a la carte menu, or opt for the unlimited rounds of dumplings (Rs. 1750 per person) You can also be a part of a masterclass where you learn how to make the dumplings along with Chef Sunil and his team(You’ll have to call ahead and make a reservation for a masterclass)

momo 3

I think we are still hungover with all that momo overload. Not complaining! I wish they add this to their regular menu though; a dinner of dumplings is a fresh, delicious change Pune could do with.

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