The last I heard about Kathmandu Spice is that people had to wait 2 hours before they got served... I myself visited KS with a group of friends previously and it was the same story... The definetly need a booster to move... Is it worth waiting to eat the 5/6 momos after many hours...
The criteria that a resturant is judged by in my lists are:
Cusotmer sevice - KS - stings
Location - parking issue but you will find one eventually not as bad as harvard square if you don't want to pay for Valet
Food - Food has to be fresh and be authentic to the place that is says it is from.
KS - some nepali food, some north indian, south indian cook - probably it's the fusion that it is...
Ambience - when you walk inside the place you need to feel that you are really there in the place where the food comes from... not create a mix up like you see where one uses all authentic decor from one culture and serve food that does not belong to that place. As for KS - it is just a regular place.

It does not carry much merit if you cant accept that maybe you rushed into a conclusion too fast. Much of my posting is to point out to you that the statement is anything but racist. You seem to mix up all the comments and get it a little fuzzy so that you can turn around and point fingers without really understanding why and where the comment is coming from. If I say X is nepali, Y is not, to a normal human mind, it becomes a statement of nationality. For you, maybe not. You think that statement automatically becomes a racism issue. Because you might differentiate the nationality of a person to look down upon it as a race, then its hardly my problem.
My questioning was to the owner who says they have 99% non-nepali customers. Now, you didnt say that..did you? And unless they surveyed the nationality of each and every customer, how could they know?

Oh, don't get me wrong. I winced a bit when the 99% number was first mentioned but I figured the owner either had the stats to back up his claim, because if anyone did, it would be him or else he was only speaking figuratively. He did not elaborate on how he came up with the number and if he had, rest assured I would have spoken up if I found there was something that needed clarification.

I don't feel I really leapt to a conclusion - not the least based on anything you have said in response to me. At the risk of sounding like a jerk, can you tell me where exactly I said you were a racist? I was pointing out what I perceived, and still do, to be a racial undertone in your remarks and expressed what I felt about it. My concern had more to do with the statement and not you the person. I have no reason to pick on you. I thought I was making an intellectual point but I get the sense you chose to personalize it and take it as an affront to you.

I find it it hard to believe that comment does not reflect an element of prejudice - perhaps not a deliberate one - but if we are talking about anyone jumping to conclusions, look in the mirror, because I see plenty of it on that side of the keyboard.

Captain Haddock, how easy it is for you to ignore something that works against you! You cannot say 'well, you are not racist, but your statement is' ..now you have switched to saying that my statement had 'underton of racism'...maybe if you keep thinking harder you will just leave the racism out of this? You ask me to look in to the mirror without actually looking at it yourself. Bad, bad idea.

You shouldnt think you can get away with saying 'you might not be, but what you said is' because a person has be to be responsible for their remarks. And equally responsible to explain what it means and your personal views if questioned.

You say watever you said is for intellectual reasons..but is it really if you cannot read something without being judgemental? We can go back and forth on this for many many days because you just dont seem to get the racism out of your head and I refuse to let you judge me or my statement in an absolutely negative way.

And just out of curiosity, would you say someone is being racist if they ask you where you are from? Or if one nepali asks another where in nepal they are from? Or if someone you run into assumes you are from some X country and you politely tell them you are from Y country? I still dont understand where you find racism in this.

I think you have it mixed up with national identity, which is a different issue. When someone talks about national identity and you jump three ft. up to say 'its racism, it has undertone of racism', then you will force me to doubt your intellectual capacity.

I know racism is a hot button issue and all and it gets people fired up, but raising it in unrelated post just shows your own prejudice

Captain Haddock are you saying the owner is being racist by saying 99% are non Nepalis? I don't think they took any surveys to find out my nationality when I went there so does that make it a racist comment to say 99% are non nepalis?

Give me a break. Talking about someones nationality doesn't make anyone racist. If you say someone looks chinese or african or indian, i don't think that's being racist. Get over it.

I think bostongirl hit the nail on the head

"I know racism is a hot button issue and all and it gets people fired up, but raising it in unrelated post just shows your own prejudice "

Phewww! Thank you, ratobhale. At least someones reading!

im reading too..lol...just dont want to come inbetween and get hit by two hot heads....ez u guys ..wth..dont u guys get bored? i dont even type things in here tho i read all of them as i find it borin to type most o' the time and ur fighin on one topic for ever? flaming each other....chill :)

Lol Goth, I am not hot headed but I dont let others run all over me by making false accusations and making it look like I am the real culprit...Oh well.

Makes me crave some hot momos with ktm spice's tomato achar..yumm!

can i have some plz? i need a ride :P

Bostongirl,

I don't know where this is going but since I have invested quite a bit of my day on this thread, and I acknowledge you have too , allow me to sound off on a couple of more things.

" You cannot say 'well, you are not racist, but your statement is' ..."

I am quite happy to say your are wrong. I have no problems saying you are not a racist. That's exactly what I was alluding to when I said you missed the point. In fact, that's what I focussed that whole reply on - discerning the difference between a racist comment and a racist person. A person can say something that is prejudicial, even racist, but may not have a racist world-view consistently or at all. That's something that has been pretty obvious to me for years, and I would hope to most sensible people too, and I didn't for a moment think you were racist solely because of that one remark. In fact, based on everything else you have said, on this and other threads which I read while waiting for your replies, I think you are a better person than that statement you made. My intent was never to pin you as a racist - it was to challenge your statement and the underlying premises - because I honestly felt such a comment reflected what, in my opinion, was an intellectual travesty, and I could not let it go unchallenged on a public forum like this.

Since you made some suggestions for what I should do, in the same spirit, allow me to make one for you. How about you so much as admit that the words you chose did not convey your true feelings about issues of race? I have other suggestions too, based solely on what you have said, but I don't think they are pertinent to this specific point and I realize we probably don't care too much about each others suggestions at this time.

All right, one more piece of slicing and dicing:

"You say watever you said is for intellectual reasons..but is it really if you cannot read something without being judgemental? "

It's okay that you think I am such. What I can say is I make a deliberate effort not to be. We may disagree on the outcome of my efforts on this thread, but I feel I looked at this fairly objectively and I felt your way of looking at things was concern enough for me to speak up about it.

We can go back and forth on this for many many days because you just dont seem to get the racism out of your head and I refuse to let you judge me or my statement in an absolutely negative way. "

Again it's not you but your statement. I am not obsessed with racism. Just concerned with the undertone, if not the overtone, that I, and I think quite a few others, detected in your statement. To me it doesn't matter which - as long as I sense some element of it. Racism is a vast topic and if we are to talk about it, we'd probably end up spending a lot more time, or days like you said, and I have a feeling there is a good chance we might agree a lot more on that subject than we have on this thread.

"but I dont let others run all over me'

oops ... maybe that says something about your intent behind this.

Just a thought :)

Gothnation -

Hot head? Who me? Get outta of here ! :)

Suggestion to bostongirl. Ignore this hot headed baboon. He's not worth it. And that will be your moral victory over the thundering blue blistering barnacle.

Ratobhaely - I am not quite sure what to make of your remark but I think this is a fantastic conversation and I hope we dont walk away from it without a sense of closure.

Well Captain Haddock, a lengthy response but you are repeating yourself. You can slice and dice my comments as much as you want but its not going to serve any purpose anymore. I am wondering why you keep saying that my statements are racist. All I am saying is, NO THEY ARE NOT RACIST...no matter how many times you say it. As you seem to believe that a person's statement really doesnt reflect what they really are, I hope you are a much much better prejudice-free, non-judgemental person in real..and that these statements are there just coz you like to pick apart things and misinterpret them.
Maybe you should read at other people's comments too and think 'do every one else think the comments were racist?' I dont think so.

All I am saying is...my comments has no hint of racism and its not in my blood either. If you choose to believe that just being from a different country automatically brings up the race, then it would be your intellectual shortcoming..wouldn't it?

You can have your final word if you would like, as I have already made my point and wouldnt like to keep repeating myself.

Bostongirl

First off, what a discussion! I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and if any of it got a little accusatory in tone and nature, shame on us for allowing it to happen. It has undoubtedly been a very engrossing thread.

It's obvious we cant agree on everything but I hope we can agree, at some point if not now, that we pursued this with the best of intentions and gave it what we felt we should. It seems we are both going out of this convinced of our righteousness, which is no suprise, since the conversation sort of veered that way after the first few replies, but I do hope you enjoyed the expereince as much as I did.

Allright, I am off to an event with my team - my phone has been ringing off the hook :)

Have a good one!

Regards to everyone else who chimed in (and due aplogies for hogging the conversation).

finally. seems like its over...

Hoyna yenha bhayo ke? i am lost ... giligiligili

Good morning to you Captain haddock seems like you are playing defense here and I am pondering about the days when hush puppy was attacking me brutally and you were consoling me, atleast I feel that Bostongirl sounds very reasonable and educated and is not agreeing to your views and is expressing herself very diligently. So your opinions can differ and maybe you cannot make each other understand your point of view atleast you both sound civilized. As for hushpuppy I heard she has gone to be groomed !!!phew!! what a relief she needed one badly!! And about the main topic Kathmandu Spice did make us wait for little over two hours for the main course to show up to our table. Ofcourse in the mean time we did try to while away our waiting time by indulging in good spirits and some soggy "complimentary" "bhatmas." But the owner's response has changed my views and i will still convince my friends to go there again. Surely he cannot expect a lot of Nepalese to show up to his resturant because numberwise we are indeed growing but still we cannot compare to our Neighbors India and China. Captain good to see you giong strong and just a reminder that today is the First day of December so shouldn't me start thinking about fixing the day for our momo bash???