San Francisco Chronicle

Chef ’s long trek to Cuisine of Nepal

- Anna Roth is a freelance writer in San Francisco. E-mail: food@ sfchronicl­e.com Twitter: @annaroth

When chef Prem Tamang was 14, he left his village in northern Nepal and went to work on the mountain. In the 1980s, the trekking industry in the Himalayas was still gearing up, but Tamang found enough work up there to be a porter, then a cook and, finally, a guide.

When Nepalese political tensions in the mid-’90s affected American tourism there, Tamang emigrated to the United States and relied on the cooking skills he’d acquired in the mountains to work in Indian restaurant kitchens throughout the Bay Area.

In 2003, he landed at Bernal Heights’ Little Nepal, a restaurant owned by his friend Ramesh Lama. Together they ran a successful neighborho­od business, beloved by Bernal locals for its momos and creamy cashew chicken curry.

Lama died in 2010, and Tamang drifted for a few years. He opened a Nepalese restaurant in Petaluma, went back to Little Nepal for a stretch, and looked around for a new San Francisco kitchen to showcase his cooking.

Finally, last fall, he was eating at Chans’ Cuisine, at Mission and Cortland, and found that its owner was looking to get out of the business. Tamang, 58, took on the lease and opened the 28-seat Cuisine of Nepal in April.

The neighborho­od fans that he’s cultivated over the past decade have followed him down the hill. They’re drawn there in part by the excellent kukhurako ledo, that cashew chicken curry, with its firebroile­d chicken bits bathed in a subtle tomato-based sauce made creamy with ground cashews in lieu of too much actual cream. Sopped up with buttery, garlicky naan, it’s quickly become one of the culinary treasures of that stretch of Mission.

Nepalese food is less reliant on butter, ghee and cream than Indian cooking, Tamang explains. As such, he tries to be judicious with his use of those ingredient­s — even when he’s making Indian dishes like palak paneer, which he knows that the neighborho­od wants alongside Nepali classics. (They also offer a brisk takeout and delivery business.) He prides himself on grinding spices every day and skipping shortcuts like subbing frozen spinach for fresh baby leaves.

But he also ensures that he makes dishes from his hometown, like butternut squash and pumpkin curries, which have a subtle heat that rounds out the gourds’ sweetness. He puts mustard greens braised in curry, another childhood favorite, on the menu whenever he can find the leafy greens. He also applied his heritage to the juicy, gingery momos, that essential Nepalese dumpling with a skin a little thicker than a gyoza.

While items like the cashew curry are superlativ­e, the rest of the menu is about on par with a great neighborho­od takeout place: nothing lifechangi­ng, but also as good or better as it needs to be to fulfill weeknight delivery or a wallet-friendly night out.

There are plenty of meaty sizzling platters, like poleko khasi, tender hunks of lamb that have been marinated in olive oil and yogurt, as well as vegetarian dishes like jhol, a mild dahl-like lentil soup, and chana saag, spinach and chickpeas. All of the entrees can be upgraded to a combo with rice, garlic or plain naan, and dahl and vegetable curry for a few extra dollars.

Cuisine of Nepal is a narrow sliver of a restaurant, although it’s made more cheery than claustroph­obic with orange walls and the warmth of the greeting from Tamang, who says he’s just happy to be here at this juncture of his life. On occasion, it seems as if he’s having trouble believing that he’s come into such good fortune.

He and his wife own a house in San Mateo and have raised two sons, now at university — a constant source of pride for their father, who didn’t even go to high school. More than that, he still has American friends who date back to his Himalayan guide days. One of them, now 97, stopped by Cuisine of Nepal for lunch the other week. Tamang was touched by the visit.

“I’m so proud of my life,” he says. “And so grateful for the help from all the friendship­s.”

 ?? Photos by Jen Fedrizzi / Special to The Chronicle ??
Photos by Jen Fedrizzi / Special to The Chronicle
 ??  ?? Chef Prem Tamang, left, makes naan at his S.F. restaurant Cuisine of Nepal. Above: The superlativ­e chicken cashew curry.
Chef Prem Tamang, left, makes naan at his S.F. restaurant Cuisine of Nepal. Above: The superlativ­e chicken cashew curry.

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