B-Kyu: Everest BBQ ~ Nepalese, Rockdale

11 October 2020

Everest BBQ ~ Nepalese, Rockdale

It's not hard to find a Nepalese restaurant in Rockdale these days, there seems to be a momo joint on every corner. But the smokey siren call of Everest BBQ gets us in, smack bang outside the railway station.

We trek over to Rockdale often lately, mostly to walk down to Botany Bay and walk around to the start of the Cooks River. Just at the steps to the railway station where the buses pull over for a furlough, this small shop is pumping out BBQ, dumplings and noodles with plenty of outdoor seating.

Sekuwa is Nepalese for BBQ skewers. Our first foray we make easy by trying the set plate, it's often the best way to try a bit of everything. And those bits were so fabulous, every single last piece. Each set comes with aalu ko achar (potato salad) sadeko bhatmas (tiny fried soybean salsa), vuteko chiura (fried flattened rice) and a small dish with timur ko chhop, a szechuan pepper and chilli spice mix. This is the tandoori set.

The lamb set at $17, same fab price, same delicious set up. When you got toward the end the mix of all the side dishes was in itself spectacular. There's hints of pickled lemons as an under flavour, we oohed an aahhed with pleasure with every bite.

Mango lassi for the lassie.

Sweet masala tee for the boy-ee.

And a plain lassi, because why just have one? The plain was still a little sweet.

On our second visit we tried the afternoon special for starters, a sel roti. This is a sweet ring of bread served with the potato pickle and a cup of sweet masala tea. At $5 it's a bargain snack.

A veg chowmien is simply flavoured, there's a mix of shredded veggies and fried soybeans for crunch. This is the food that sustains trekkers in Nepal. The housemade tomato sauce has a touch of sweetness, similar to Filipino banana ketchup (or Heinz with a teaspoon of sugar). It adds a little zing to the noodles.

The jhol momo ($12) is filled with spiced chicken mince, and is served in a soupy curry sauce. These guys are just a good spoonful in size, there's about 8 in a serve.