Himalayan Bites Unite Jackson Heights
By Patrick Rao and Leo Garkisch
Strolling down 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens, one can catch whiffs of everything from South Asian to South American foods, each aroma coming from a different restaurant, representative of a particular cultural identity with a unique style and specific cuisine.
While many restaurants in the neighborhood stick to serving one type of food, at least one is known for its more expansive, diverse array of choices.
Delhi Heights, an establishment fittingly located on Diversity Plaza at the corner of 74th Street and 37th Avenue, draws in customers with its comprehensive menu that encompasses foods from all across South Asia.
“One guy tastes Nepalese, one guy tastes Bhutan, one guy tastes Indian,” Delhi Heights owner and operator Mohan Baruwal, 40, said. “They have a lot of choice. That’s why a lot of people are coming.”
As a locality with roughly 160 languages and dialects represented, Jackson Heights is, according to local tour guide Andrew Silverstein, the most diverse neighborhood of Queens, which, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the most diverse county in the world.
And while this diversity is reflected in the sheer number of shops catering to niche markets, Baruwal says he doesn’t have to worry about competition. Delhi Heights is one of the only restaurants in the neighborhood that serves four different types of food — Indian, Tibetan, Bhutanese and Nepalese.
In 2006, Baruwal was one of roughly 3,000 Nepalese people whose families won the Diversity Immigrant Visa lottery program — a U.S. State Department initiative that makes permanent resident visas available to natives of countries with low emigration rates to the United States.
Upon arriving in the U.S., Baruwal came to Jackson Heights, where he settled down with his family and opened a restaurant serving traditional Himalayan cuisine. Baruwal explained that as the Nepalese and greater Himalayan communities in Jackson Heights grew, Baruwal’s Himalayan restaurant flourished.
Over time, however, Baruwal realized that to expand his clientele, the best move would be to include Indian food on the menu.
So in 2007, Baruwal purchased Delhi Heights, an Indian restaurant, and added Himalayan food to the menu.
“Everybody knows Indian food,” Baruwal said. “That’s why they’re gonna come — the taste of Indian food.”
That taste — and the fact that it’s familiar across much of America — is what draws people of all ethnicities to come to Delhi Heights, Baruwal says.
Open from 11:30 am to 4 am daily, Delhi Heights allows workers from the community who do not follow conventional workday schedules to come get food at any time of the day.
Xola Thompson, 22, an African-American from East Elmhurst, has eaten at the restaurant three or four times after originally finding it on Yelp. He feels that food can help to bring people of various cultures together because everybody can relate to similar dishes.
“There are also a lot of similarities you can notice through how people express their culture,” Thompson said. “You have a lot of a lot of cultures that do chicken and rice dishes with bread on the side or something like that. How they do it is a little different, but it’s still like you can relate to it.”
Sitting across the table from Thompson was Jasmin Bayolima, 20, a woman of Ecuadorian descent from Corona, Queens.
“At least for my family, we have a huge thing for food,” Bayolima said. “We get together, we cook together, we make all these dishes together. People like this, people like that, and it kind of just brings us all together. And that’s what pretty much makes us us.”
A similar sentiment is shared by the Delhi Heights staff. Because the restaurant attracts so many different types of people, it is only natural that it serves as a binding force in the community, says Delhi Heights waiter Rahul Sharma, 23.
“If you open a restaurant and put three or four countries’ food, usually people will be comfortable and will talk to everyone like, ‘Go there, that’s nice-tasting food,’” Sharma said.
Sharma, who was born in India and is studying transcendental meditation in Fairfield, Iowa, stressed the importance of cultural tolerance to hold together Jackson Heights.
“That’s the only way to live all together,” Sharma said of cross-cultural tolerance. “There is no Hindu, no Muslim. Everybody is similar. Then they live together.”
He feels that regardless of religion or cultural background, when people enter Delhi Heights, all walls built between them crumble as they enjoy food together.
The great success and community feel of his Delhi Heights restaurant in Jackson Heights has led Baruwal to contemplate the next step for his business. Despite his relatively young age of 40, Baruwal already has a clear vision for the future, explaining that it is every man’s goal to build up his business.
He hopes to open a catering hall in the short-term, but his ultimate goal is to open a Delhi Heights branch in Manhattan.
“Manhattan customers come here to eat the food from the Delhi Heights,” said Baruwal. “That’s why I’m going to open a branch. Same name, but another restaurant.”
