Spice Up Your Holidays

BY RONY CAMILLE / PHOTOS BY ROBERT ORTIZ

FOUR NH RESTAURANTS OFFER THEIR FAVORITE WINTER RECIPES

“Food, glorious food” is what the orphans sing in the musical “Oliver” based on Charles Dickens’ novel “Oliver Twist.” Food is also the quintessential element that brings families and communities together when they celebrate their most important holidays or just want to enjoy some comfort food during

Fortunately, New Hampshire is blessed to have excellent ethnic and fusion restaurants in diverse locations ranging from the North Country to southern New Hampshire to the Seacoast. To brighten up your holiday meals and provide some warmth to your winter table, we reached out to some of their chefs to get some cool recipes for you.

Don’t be daunted by ingredients or recipes that seem strange or challenging. Muster the courage to try some of these dishes at home with your family, expand your horizons and create new memories.

BAMEE | DURHAM

Pat Rassamee never imagined finding herself in a commercial kitchen, let alone running a restaurant in a bustling college town in New Hampshire.

Rassamee, who grew up in Thailand, is the co-visionary behind Bamee, a Thai street food and Asian-fusion restaurant situated on Jenkins Court in Durham, just a stone’s throw away from the University of New Hampshire campus.

Bamee means “egg noodle” in the official language of Thailand. It signifies an egg-based yellow noodle found in Thai street food. Rassamee says that Thai people celebrate their holidays differently. She recalls consuming lots of food from street vendors while growing up with her grandparents.

“It was really a convenience for us,” she says. “When it comes to big holidays like Thai New Year or universal New Year Day, for instance, we like to go out to fancy or special food restaurants (hot pot, sushi, barbecue, etc.) where we can get food that we don’t usually make at home,” she says.

Songkran, a national New Year’s holiday in Thailand, is celebrated April 13 to 15 each year. When it was time to cook, her grandfather did the honors in the kitchen, she says. One of those dishes, a buttercup squash with red curry, was a family favorite.

It wasn’t until her grandfather passed away that she and her mother picked up the kitchen utensils to recreate his beautiful dishes at home. “We learned how to cook from observing my grandfather in the kitchen,” she says.

Another of those creations is bao — a fluffy, steamed bun with shredded pork that melts in your mouth — and gaeng som, a sweet, spicy and sour fish soup with vegetables. Those dishes inspired the opening of Bamee in 2017. Rassamee is actively working on a new concept in downtown Portsmouth for 2023.

Pat Rassamee, owner of Bamee Thai Street Food in Durham.

SHALIMAR RESTAURANT | PORTSMOUTH

Food is such an important cultural element for Harbhajan Singh, 63, and his daughter Kulbir Kaur, 34, that they dedicate themselves to ensuring everything goes right. So much so that Singh, a practicing Sikh, meditates and prays over the food as it is prepared and before it goes out for lunch or dinner service.

“We’re not serving customers,” he says. “We’re serving family.” The father and daughter duo oversee the operations of Shalimar, nestled on downtown Portsmouth’s famous Hanover Street. It has been there since 1992, establishing itself as a culinary institution for locals and tourists.

Singh’s love for cooking came from his father, who owned restaurants in the northern Punjab state of India.

Diwali, known as the festival of lights, is one of the major holidays celebrated by the Sikhs, Hindu, Jains and Buddhists worldwide. The holiday, celebrated in October this year, marks the start of the Hindu calendar and celebrates the victory of good over evil over the course of five days.

According to Kaur, those who celebrate do so with ghee oil lamps, lights, fireworks — and of course, food.

“For us, fall and winter equal comfort foods,” Kaur says. “Desserts were always big in our house growing up,” she adds.

One of those desserts is gulgula, a sweet fried dough ball, and Kaju Katli, a cashew-based dessert. Golden milk, a warm milk-based tea composed of ginger, turmeric, cardamon, a pinch of saffron and honey, is another staple during the holidays, according to Singh.

“Not only is it good, but it also has good health properties. You sleep well when you drink this in the evening,” he says.

Sikhs believe that everyone is equal before God. They also believe that people’s actions are important and everyone should try to lead a good life. One way the Singh-Kaur follow this belief is by treating everyone who walks in their door as family.

That practice, combined with a connection to meditation and spirituality, has kept Shalimar going for over 30 years.

Harbhajan Singh and his daughter, Kublir

DULCE’S BAKERY | MANCHESTER

Growing up in Staten Island, NY, the holidays for Angela Mojica meant family reunions and everything Colombian. “You always looked forward to the holidays, because you knew your family would get together,” she says. “Everybody would make something. I know my mom and my dad all would go all-out making everything Colombian that I could imagine,” she recalls.

For Colombians, the holiday season starts on December 1 and lasts through All Kings Day on January 6.

Noche Buena, which translates to “the night of goodness,” is the height of the holiday season, celebrated on

Christmas Eve, December 24, in Colombia and most Latino Christian cultures. It marks the birth of Jesus Christ.

Mojica, 39, is a native of Cali, Colombia, and has operated Dulce’s Bakery at its present location on the corner of Amherst and Chestnut streets in Manchester since 2018. The bakery is located across from the city’s Victory Park, occupying what once was PO Diner Luncheonette.

Her goal is to offer products that other bakeries in the area may not have. “I want to offer Colombian culture to Manchester,” says Mojica.

One of these sweets is tres leches (milk cakes), which can only be described as “heaven in a cup.” It’s a milk cake topped off with whipped cream, says Mojica. Various flavors are added such as vanilla, chocolate, pineapple, guava and coconut, to name a few.

Another dessert she offers in her shop was also one of her childhood holiday favorites. It is coquito’s macaron (coconut kiss) — not to be confused with the boozy milky coconut drink from Puerto Rico.

According to Afrogistmedia, coconut kisses date back to the 1700s, when dessert ingredients mostly consisted of wheat flour and coconut. The treat has Venezuelan roots, however, some sources claim that it originated in Puerto Rico.

“Many countries have tried to claim it as their own,“ Mojica muses.

EL MIRADOR | BETHLEHEM

Brothers Juan and Andres Pu have always worked behind the grill serving others. However, it was this year they fulfilled their dreams and opened up not one but two businesses feeding the stomachs and souls of the North Country.

Originally from Guatemala, the family launched El Mirador Restaurante — el mirador translates to “the view” — on the grounds of the Bethlehem Country Club over the summer. This was shortly after launching the “North Country’s Daddy’s Grill” food truck based in Littleton. Both venues offer Latino and American cuisine.

“It’s been my dream for a long time to open up a restaurant,” says Juan Pu. “I didn’t expect it to happen this fast.”

Sometimes success sneaks up on you. Juan Pu says he wasn’t planning to open up a brick-andmortar business initially. In April, he and his brother launched North Country Daddy’s Grill. The truck grew so popular that the Bethlehem Country Club approached the brothers to take over the space that once housed the Putter’s Club, and El Mirador was born.

One of the things they look forward to is introducing the North Country this holiday season to hot Latino foods, such as tamales, a traditional Guatemalan dish ensconsed in masa, a corn-based dough. This comfort food will keep everyone warm during the coldest winter months.

Juan and Andres Pu, owners of El Mirador in Bethlehem, cook up wonderful Central American fare that will brighten any winter table. Photo by Kendall Bush