How SF’s ‘queen of momos’ made dumplings go viral

In Pradhan’s case, it was participating in La Cocina’s high-profile food incubator in 2012 that propelled her and her momos to stardom. Since then, it’s become requisite local food knowledge to be familiar with Bini’s Kitchen and her momos.

“Momos have gone viral since the day I started with Off the Grid … but I would want all the Nepalese friends to start good, authentic Nepali food here in the Bay Area. I have given food the ‘Nepalito,’ the touch of California,” Pradhan said of her cooking style, especially when wraps filled with slow-simmered stews appear on her menus.

Nepal is a landlocked country bordered by India and Tibet, and a whisper away from Bangladesh and Bhutan. With a diversity of regional influences, landscapes spanning the mountainous Himalayas to sea-level plains, and more than 100 ethnic groups, Nepali food is varied. It ranges from a yak cheese called chhurpi of the Himalayas to kwati daal, a Nepali bean stew.

However, “if you go to the [Nepalese] restaurants here, you’ll find Indian, Pakistani and Nepali together,” said Pradhan, making it difficult to distinguish which cuisine is which. Nepali restaurateurs wanted to ease diners into Nepali food with cuisines more familiar to mainstream palates, but ended up creating a mold that might be ready to change.

Pradhan is from Nepal and learned cooking from her mother, then trained as a chef in Mumbai. She has a larger goal to spread awareness of Nepali food and culture, and to take care of her staff. With a warm aura and a bright light in her eyes, it makes sense that her restaurant’s motto is “Nepalese cuisine from the soul.” And momos are the gateway to that.

‘Take the whole bite’

Sitting on the corner of 6th and Howard streets, Pradhan knows the SoMa area can be rough for restaurants. She pointed to a square piece of tape on the window. It covers a crack where a bullet hit it three months ago, but there’s no money to pay for repairs.

Still, the restaurant is pristine and beautiful inside. Floor-to-ceiling windows let in a ton of natural light. Behind the glass-walled counter sit several mesmerizing deep-blue dutch ovens, and customers can see employees making momos.

(Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)
(Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)

“It’s hand-wrapped, small pieces of meat. It looks like a rose,” Pradhan said. “We twist [the dough], and there is a dip in between … back home, we put the sauce in there.”

While momos range from huge half-moons to apricot-sized round shapes, Pradhan advised, “Don’t cut it. … If you can, take the whole bite.”

I’ve had momos from various places in the Bay Area and in Queens, New York, when friends brought me some from a momo crawl in Jackson Heights (where the best ones came from the back of a cellphone store). Still, there is much to learn.

The smaller round ones resemble bigger xiao long bao. The dough folds can be numerous and soft, or fewer and more distinct. The momos of Bini’s Kitchen are of the round persuasion, with six to 12 folds of dough hugging each meatball, each crease deliberate and sharp, like paper.

Momos are a commanding presence. The labor behind their pristine appearance shows in the band Pradhan wears on her left wrist for carpal tunnel, which she’s been contending with for eight years. All of her hand-making — especially dough wrapping — puts stress on her body, much like a professional athlete.

Originally made with water buffalo or yak — common animals in Nepal, but hard to find stateside — versions at Bini’s Kitchen include turkey, chicken, lamb and veggie. The turkey momos are particularly popular, absorbing flavors well, and are relatively healthy.

Pradhan brings spices back from her trips to Nepal, and cited a pepper called timur that gives her momos’ tomato-cilantro sauce, as well the restaurant’s chili paste, a distinctive spicy profile. It’s a delicious numbing sensation, not unsurprising once I learned that timur and Sichuan peppers come from the same family.

Even though Pradhan spent two years perfecting her momo dough recipe, lack of space made it difficult to keep producing it from scratch, since the ideal storage temperature differs from her other ingredients. So she started purchasing square Chinese dumpling wrappers from New May Wah in the Richmond District — another callback to the universality of dumplings.

Pradhan eventually went straight to the source of the wrappers on South Van Ness, at New Hong Kong Noodles. She waited two years before successfully becoming a customer but is now locked in and gets the freshest wrappers available. They hold up well, being purchased and cooked soon after being manufactured.

A dumpling for every culture

Before the Howard Street restaurant became the Bini’s Kitchen flagship in 2019, a Post Street kiosk first opened in 2015 to serve busy downtown workers. Since the pandemic hit, the outpost closed and its fate remains undecided. According to Pradhan, building owners Brookfield Properties are negotiating the lease with La Cocina, which had helped her secure the space originally.

Although Pradhan admitted that the Howard Street restaurant continues to struggle, she still manages to support her staff, of whom she could hire back fewer than half from the pre-pandemic days. She makes up the short-staffing difference with her and her sister’s own (often unpaid) labor. She credited La Cocina time and again for their ongoing support during our conversation.

“If there was no La Cocina, I would have never, ever come to this point. It’s my second home,” she said. “I would not have come to this point where I could help others.”

Pradhan’s food was carried in several grocery stores, including seven Whole Foods, but now only one (Driver’s Market in Sausalito) due to the pandemic. While the lack of downtown workers means Howard Street isn’t as busy as it used to be, it’s still the hub where all the food is prepared for catering orders and her outposts at La Cocina Municipal Marketplace, the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, Stonestown Galleria farmers market and Driver’s Market.

While momos aren’t indigenous Nepali cuisine, they have perhaps become the most well-known dish of the nation.

“Every culture has their own dumplings. Just the names change, the spices change,” Pradhan said.

Comfortingly familiar

Prices at Bini’s Kitchen remain reasonable despite inflation. Eight turkey or chicken momos are $10, and lamb ones are $12. The combo plates, called Khana Plates, come with four momos, rice, and either one, two, or three Ledo Bedos (mains) for only $15 to $19 — a steal for Pradhan’s homemade and handmade delights.

I could taste the time and effort with each bite of her food. In the Khana Plate, Pradhan selected turkey and lamb momos. What a sensation from the first bite into steaming hot, chewy dough, followed by juicy, mouthwatering meatballs made with finely ground turkey, bursting with a marriage of hand-pounded spices.

The faint familiar taste of green onions mingled with Pradhan’s dried cilantro (“back home they say coriander”) and dried cumin (“we call it jerra”) spice pairing — is a winning combination that felt simultaneously novel and comfortingly familiar.

The lamb wasn’t overly gamey but felt a little luxurious with some surprise meat juice oozing out, indeed reminiscent of xiao long bao. Pradhan suggested feeding drops of the meat juice to my baby, but I ate the momos before that could happen. Sorry, baby.

The fresh momos alone were a delight, but the accompanying tomato-cilantro sauce became addicting, cutting the fat and refreshing my palate for the next serving.

The momos were accompanied by a saucy Gurkha chicken, fluffy jeera rice infused with glowing golden turmeric and cumin, plus the momos’ tomato-cilantro sauce (“Bini’s Famous Momo Sauce”) and crispy housemade chili paste made from the timur. The tomato-cilantro sauce’s sharp, spicy soprano to the Gurkha chicken’s bass-y, grounded tomato gravy seemed meant to be paired together.

I couldn’t help but also ask for other dishes. The veggie momos, filled with chopped cabbage, shredded carrots and little bits of tofu, didn’t have the same hearty bite as the meat momos. However, they felt lighter in my stomach, and would contribute to a balanced feast if trying All The Momos.

There was also baingun bharta, in which eggplant, tomatoes and onions were braised slowly down to a thick, hearty stew. The Kauli Hariyo Kerau featured sautéed cauliflower heavily accented with peas and bits of green onion. Crispy, densely layered whole wheat Nepali roti was griddled to toothsome perfection, with crunchier dark spots where the dough bubbled out during cooking, and accompanied by Pradhan’s momo sauce. All this fresh, complex food could easily fetch double the prices in a more formal sit-down restaurant.

Wherever you may be in the city, find Bini’s Kitchen, appreciate the food’s abundance of flavors, visit often and tip well to prolong the magnanimous reign of the queen of momos.

“When I come here in the morning, it brings me a lot of love,” she said. “When I touch our food, lightness comes in.”

Bini’s Kitchen, 1001 Howard St., San Francisco. Open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Also found at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturday, 8 a.m.- 2 p.m.; Stonestown Galleria farmers market on Sunday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; La Cocina Municipal Marketplace, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Follow Bini’s Kitchen on Instagram for updates on its Post Street store.