The smell of delicious momos is all around the air. Servers, waiters and other Bakery Cafe staff, immediately recognisable in their white aprons, are busy serving customers. Their momos come in all shapes and sizes and the customers are flocking to the various dumpling stalls. There are little children and grownups, avid momo lovers from around town and foreigners who’re perhaps having their first taste of Nepal’s take on the dumpling. The environment is electric, manic even, and Momo Mania has taken the premises by storm.

The Bakery Cafe’s annual celebration goes to show, every year, how crazy we Nepalis are about momos. This time, the grand celebration featured 16 stalls, each offering a unique variety of dumplings. There were the regular buff, pork and chicken momos for sure, but also tofu, paneer, wanton, fish, sabji and Spanish varieties.

There were choices galore, and people could be seen standing in line and eating momos, sitting with their families and enjoying momos, and  walking around enjoying delicious steamed momos!

The gala however, is never quite limited to eating. As each year, this year’s Momo Mania event also featured live music—with Kathmandu’s rock stalwarts Mukti and Revival performing at the venue in the evening—as well as a few eating and drinking competitions. Kids and adults tried their hand at stuffing their mouths and bellies with as many momos in a minute as possible; there was a beer drinking competition, a momo making competition and even a wine tasting guessing game where the drinker had to figure out the kind and vintage of his drink by the feel and taste of it in his mouth. The event, which began at 1 pm, proved to be great fun for Kathmanduties who made the most out of the opportunity to celebrate their cherished Saturdays under the warmth of the February sun. The sheer variety and tastes on offer was amazing. “It is not possible to taste these many varieties of momos at home or even at restaurants,” said Rupesh Dawadi, a Momo Mania attendee. “It’s great that Momo Mania enables us to do this every year.”

Special attractions at the event included, among a whole load of other performances, a particularly spectacular show by Circus Kathmandu. The acrobatic feats the troupe members managed to perform at the Momo Mania stage left the audience in awe and let us not forget Mukti and Revival’s spectacular concert. A few other things could have capped off a day spent under the sun, enjoying what is certainly Nepal’s unofficial national dish, any better. Momo Mania might be over for this year, but we’re already looking forward to the next year’s installment.