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Marse The New Delicious was created back in August 2019, after owner Laxmi and her husband Santosh decided to introduce Winchester to beautiful and healthy Nepalese food served from their street food stall/small catering business...
Laxmi is passionate about travel, food, and ancient grains having worked on research projects with custodian farmers across the globe. Her findings reflected that ancient grains are not only much better for the planet in terms of sustainability and biodiversity, nutrionally they are much better for us too - so she decided to champion them in her foods! This is where the name comes from by the way - Marse is Nepalese for amaranth - and the New Delicious side of things reflects how many of their ingredients are new to many - buckwheat, millet, spelt, rye and red rice all feature highly, as do nine different types of beans and pulses. It goes without saying that they are taste good too, especially when Laxmi has worked her Marse the New Delicious magic on them...
In "normal" times, you can pop down to Middle Brook Street (usually) on a Friday and Saturday, and choose from a variety of colourful dishes cooked freshly on the stall. Choices include The Marse Superbowl - a combination of Kwati (Nepalese mixed bean stew, made with nine different beans and pulses), multigrain balls made with red rice, millet, buckwheat, amaranth, and white rice and sweet and sour chicken - or with tofu and sweet peppers. One of my favourites - Rainbow Rolls - the freshest Vietnamese Summer Rolls ever, filled with fresh pineapple, carrot, purple cabbage, cucumber, red pepper and braised pork belly (or pan-grilled tofu as a vegan option) all rolled in rice paper with amaranth and homemade hoisin...
You must add a Parsnion Bhaji to whatever dish you choose - these parsnip and onion bhajis with fennel and nigella seeds are amazing, and come with a homemade tamarind sauce. If you are in the mood for dumplings, opt for the Momo - a variety of Nepalese dumplings served with various homemade sauces.... -
Marse the New Delicious has sadly had to close the stall for a few weeks thanks to Lockdown Version 2, but if you have missed their food as much as we have, you can order a box of Marse The New Delicious's frozen raw Momo and have them delivered straight to your door! Laxmi sent us a box to sample, and they have been a definite highlight of our week foodwise so far...
Not unlike Chinese Dumplings, or Japanese Gyoza, Momo differ in that their fillings also contain Indian herbs and spices. The first thing that struck me about them as I opened the box was how expertly made they are. I loved the fact that they came with clearly marked accompanying sauces (all homemade) too.
Our box contained several different flavours of Momo, including Chicken Momo - filled with minced chicken and cabbage, Beef Momo - filled with minced beef and chorizo, Vegan Mushroom Momo filled with soya chunks and mushrooms, Vegan Momo filled with soya chunks and cabbage, and last but not least - some sweet Momo filled with caramel, coconut and crushed sesame seeds.
We cook quite a lot of dumplings at home so we have a steamer, but Laxmi assures me that you can steam Momo using an upturned plate surrounded by water in a pan with a lid if you don't have one (and if you don't have one, it's definitely worth investing - you can pick them up for a couple of pounds from the Asian Supermarket)...
Having set our steamer up over a pan of boiling water, the steamed Momo took 15 minutes to cook. The Kothey (or potstickers) are cooked by heating by gently frying until the bottoms are golden brown, and then submerging in water and cooking for a further 8-10 minutes until the water evaporates. You can't get much easier than that for a plate of really good food!! Unlike a lot of the shop-bought dumplings, it was immediately obvious that these are handmade as the flavours are so intense. They honestly taste like they were made yesterday.
You can pick and choose which Momos your frozen box contains, and boxes come in two sizes of 30 pieces for £20 or 20 for £15. I suggest you go for the bigger box and have them as a main meal. I can't think of anything nicer on one of these boring lockdown days than digging the steamer out and making a bit of an event out of these Nepalese delicacies ... Do make sure to include the sweet dessert dumplings to your order, they are just as delicious!
We honestly can't wait to be able to pop down and enjoy more Marse The New Delicious food straight from the stall, but in the meantime, we will be ordering more Momo to stick in the freezer!
We were sent a box of Momo to review by Marse the New Delicious, all words and opinions are very much our own (as always)....
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