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Tibetan restaurant in Bloomington

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Andrew Mellman

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Tibetan restaurant in Bloomington

by Andrew Mellman » Fri Mar 13, 2009 4:52 pm

Doogy R wrote: I also plan on going to an Afghani place in Bloomington,



At one point Bloomington used to be the home of one of the few Tibetan restaurants in the country . . . do you know if it's still there? (sorry for the partially out-of-thread post) If so, by chance have you eaten there?
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Robin Garr

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Tibetan restaurants in Bloomington and elsewhere

by Robin Garr » Fri Mar 13, 2009 4:58 pm

andrew mellman wrote:At one point Bloomington used to be the home of one of the few Tibetan restaurants in the country . . . do you know if it's still there? (sorry for the partially out-of-thread post) If so, by chance have you eaten there?

At one point in the late '80s, early '90s, there were only two Tibetan restaurants in the US: Snow Lion in Bloomington and Tibetan Kitchen on Third Avenue in the low 40s in Manhattan. I made it my business to eat at both, just for the hell of it.

IU apparently has a major Institute of Tibetan Studies, an organization in which the Dalai Lama's brother is or was involved in some way, and the restaurant was said to be a spinoff of the steady stream of Tibetans that this brought to Bloomington, plus the relative ease of selling offbeat ethnic food in a college town.

The landscape has changed somewhat, of course. NYC has several now, and so does the Bay Area. I ran into a Tibetal place a few years ago in either Ann Arbor or Madison. (Aren't they interchangeable? ;) )

The food, in any case, isn't strikingly different from what you'd expect of the region - sort of a mix of China and the -stans (why do I hear echoes from another thread), with stir-fries common, not usually hot-and-spicy; flatbreads, wheat noodles and a kind of dumpling called momos are the usual starches, although most of these places serve rice too, perhaps because a Western audience expects it.

Disclaimer: I haven't eaten at Snow Lion since about 1990, but I had one of their T-shirts ("Second Only Tibetan Restaurant in U.S.") until it fell into shreds.
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Re: Tibetan restaurant in Bloomington

by Stephen D » Fri Mar 13, 2009 5:38 pm

Why does this smell like a realy cool offline?

Figure out a really nice diner, drive-in, dive (from here on out, ddd, screw it! :wink: ) to stop at on the way and we're golden. Tibet, Ghani and ddd, sounds like a nice little tasting and not stupid expensive, if we take a van (or four.)
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Jesse Hendrix-Inman

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Re: Tibetan restaurant in Bloomington

by Jesse Hendrix-Inman » Fri Mar 13, 2009 5:46 pm

I lived in Bloomington from oh, about 3rd grade to after college. The general consensus among locals is that Little Tibet is Bloomington's best Tibetan restaurant. It's on 4th Street. Here is the website: http://www.anyetsangs.com/

If you were to plan an offliine there, you might want to plan on a 4th Street restaurant hop. There are several other restaurants in close proximity serving unique food. FWIW

Oh, and the Dalai Lama's brother (Thubten Norbu) was indeed a faculty member at IU and was also regarded as a reincarnated high lama. Sadly he passed away in 2007.
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Re: Tibetan restaurant in Bloomington

by Ann K » Fri Mar 13, 2009 6:03 pm

I had my first curry experience at Snow Lion while visiting a friend in Bloomington in 1993. That remains one of my favorite food memories, and is the reason that I continue to adore curry in any form.
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Re: Tibetan restaurant in Bloomington

by Stephen D » Fri Mar 13, 2009 6:18 pm

[quote="Jesse Hendrix-Inman"]If you were to plan an offliine there, you might want to plan on a 4th Street restaurant hop. There are several other restaurants in close proximity serving unique food. FWIW[quote]

Yahtzee! That would be the input needed for a dining hop...

Still, I do think a quickstop may be in order. 2.5 hrs there, I think, and a bunch of foodies rambling will definately make me hungry, if you feel me.

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