{"id":6045,"date":"2026-09-13T08:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T08:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/6045\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T08:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T08:17:14","slug":"love-for-nepalese-delicacy-began-at-17800-feet-in-the-himalayas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/6045\/","title":{"rendered":"Love for Nepalese delicacy began at 17,800 feet in the Himalayas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spending two months in Mount Everest base camp and on the mountain above, which I had the great fortune to experience in 1985, is full of beauty, challenge, exhaustion, inspiration, wonder and hardship. On a difficult day, nothing lifted my spirits quite like hearing our Sherpa cook announce that we would be having yak meat momos for dinner.\n<\/p>\n

Those minced meat dumplings spiced with cumin, garlic and ginger were an occasional treat, greatly appreciated, even if the yak meat could be tough and gristly sometimes. Four decades later, whenever I dine at one of Denver\u2019s Nepalese restaurants, an order of momos instantly transports me back to our base camp in the shadow of Everest, which soared 11,000 feet above us.
\n\"TheThe exterior of Yak and Yeti in Arvada. (Photo by Kristin Morin\/Denver Post file)\n<\/p>\n

That trip gave me a taste for other Nepalese specialities, too, which takes me to three Denver-area restaurants specializing in the food of Nepal and India: The Sherpa House in Golden, Yak and Yeti (Wheat Ridge, Arvada and Westminster) and Himchuli (RiNo and the Highlands).<\/p>\n

I should add that the Everest trip also gave me a deep fondness for the people of Nepal, renowned for their sweet friendliness and cheerfulness. I never knew people with so little in the way of material possessions could be so happy.<\/p>\n

Khagendra Gurung, who owns the two Himchuli locations, grew up in Katunje, a village located on a trekking route 50 miles northwest of the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu. When trekkers from the U.S. passed through, they seemed friendly to him, and he began to dream about emigrating to America.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the United States was different. I wanted to go there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

So he did, when he was in his mid-20s, joining a sister who lived in Nederland. He went to work at a Nepalese restaurant there.<\/p>\n

Five years later, in 2007, he opened his own restaurant near Evergreen in Bergen Park, called Cuisine of the Himalayas. In 2016, he opened the first Himchuli in Denver\u2019s Highland neighborhood. Five years later, he added the RiNo location. He still owns the Bergen Park restaurant and lives in Evergreen.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Colorado, I love the people,\u201d he said. \u201cColorado kind of seems like Nepal, the people are friendly. I love the mountains. That\u2019s why I am not missing Nepal very much. Colorado feels like Nepal, you can see the mountains, you can hike trails.\u201d<\/p>\n

Himchuli means \u201csnowy peak,\u201d by the way.<\/p>\n

Khagendra is quite the entrepreneur, too. In addition to his Nepalese restaurants, he also owns Pizza Alley, located next door to the Highland Himchuli location, which serves New York-style pizza.<\/p>\n

If you are unfamiliar with Nepali food, all three of the restaurants mentioned here \u2014 Himchuli, Sherpa House, Yak and Yeti \u2014 have buffets so you can sample different dishes.<\/p>\n

The Arvada Yak and Yeti location occupies a Victorian-era mansion dating back to 1864 and is located three blocks from Olde Town Arvada. The Sherpa House, which is also located in a historic building, is located two blocks from downtown Golden. Owner Lhakpa Sherpa has developed the property into a cultural center for Front Range Nepalis.
\n\"SherpaSherpa House Restaurant and Culture Center in Golden, Colorado on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang\/The Denver Post)\n<\/p>\n

For me, there\u2019s just something special about the aroma whenever I walk into a Nepalese restaurant, breathing in those pungent scents of garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander and turmeric. It\u2019s intoxicating.<\/p>\n

In fact, before sitting down to write this piece, I couldn\u2019t resist calling the Yak and Yeti in Arvada for a takeout lunch order of chicken momos, which they serve with a delicious Indian chutney dipping sauce. It brought back lots of memories, as it always does.<\/p>\n

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Spending two months in Mount Everest base camp and on the mountain above, which I had the great fortune to experience in 1985, is full of beauty, challenge, exhaustion, inspiration, wonder and hardship. On a difficult day, nothing lifted my spirits quite like hearing our Sherpa cook announce that we would be having yak meat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[2898,3819,3817,3820,3818,7469,7472,68,7471,7470],"class_list":["post-6045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-dining","tag-colorado-food","tag-colorado-grocery-stores","tag-colorado-restaurants","tag-himchuli","tag-nepali-indian-food","tag-restaurants","tag-sherpa-house","tag-yak-and-yeti"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117262748632915301","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}