[title]
New York’s most delicious dollar menu returns this weekend, when more than 30 local vendors descend on Jackson Heights with enough steamed and fried dumplings to test the limits of both your stomach.
The 14th annual Momo Crawl takes over Diversity Plaza and a blocked-off stretch of 37th Road on Sunday, September 13, bringing $1 momos, live music, dance and other performances to the heart of one of the city's great food neighborhoods. The festival runs from noon to 5pm, with voting for its fiercely contested Momo Championship Belt closing at 4:30 pm.
For the uninitiated, momos are plump Himalayan dumplings typically filled with meat or vegetables, then steamed or fried and served with a vividly spiced dipping sauce. During the crawl, visitors can taste versions from more than 30 Tibetan, Nepalese and South Asian businesses, including neighborhood favorites Amdo Kitchen, Gangri Karpo, Potala Fresh Food and Mom’s Momo.
View this post on Instagram
To participate, buy a passport, follow the map from stop to stop and pay each vendor $1 per momo. Every passport also includes a ballot, allowing crawlers to crown the restaurant responsible for the day’s finest doughy pocket. The winning vendor receives the Momo Championship Belt—and neighborhood bragging rights until next year.
Regular passports cost $15 and the first 100 crawlers will receive a traditional Tibetan scarf, known as a khatag. A $60 limited-edition option includes skip-the-line access at select vendors, a black-and-gold collector passport, a T-shirt and a scarf. Passports can be bought online and collected at Diversity Plaza beginning at 11:30 am Sunday.
The crawl began in 2012 as a small neighborhood gathering created by Queens-based food writer and tour guide Jeff Orlick. It has since become a major celebration of Himalayan food and culture, drawing thousands of hungry visitors to Jackson Heights. The event is organized with Students for a Free Tibet and proceeds from passport sales support the grassroots organization’s human-rights and cultural-preservation work. (Organizers have also promoted a separate fundraiser supporting relief efforts along the Nepal-Tibet border.)
A word to the hungry: Lines tend to grow after 1 pm, so arrive early, bring small bills and enlist friends to divide and conquer. The 7, E, F, M and R trains all stop nearby at Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue/74th Street. Come prepared to share—but no one will blame you if that last momo mysteriously disappears.