momo

A manufacturer of high end automotive accessories, when someone casually speaks of a car having momos, they are usually referring to the rims. Momo, however, makes shift knobs, steering wheels, and clothing as well.

A Tibetan dumpling. In my experience, often not particularly appetizing unless you are very cold and very hungry.

They are often stuffed with lamb flesh that has been slaughtered by Muslims. (As I have heard many times from various Tibetan Buddhist lamas, the negative karma generated by killing is just fine for Muslims since they will all be destroyed when the warriors of the hidden king of Shambhala emerge and kill everyone who has not received the Kalachakra initiation.) Sometimes however they are stuffed with yak (dzo) or horse meat from an animal that has died.

Momos are most often served in a broth made with yak bones, are sometimes steamed, sometimes fried. In rancid yak butter, unfortunately.

Seasoning tends to be sparse, if not utterly absent as Tibetans tend to have superstitions about almost every herb and root in their environment. Generally, there is at least salt.

In other Himalayan regions such as Bhutan and Nepal, momos might often have chiles or other seasonings mixed with the filling and ocassionally some vegetables.

In the Tibetan refugee settlements in India, curries and other seasonings have become popular.

In Japan, Tibetan immigrants will use shoyu, ginger, togarashi, and sometimes slivered scallions in their momo. But really these are gyoza, the Japanese version of Chinese dumplings.

Momo is the main character of a children's book of the same title written by Michael Ende, and it is his second most popular book next to The Neverending Story.

Momo is a young orphan girl who one day appears in a small town, claiming to be 100 or 102 years old, but looking no older than twelve. She is able to listen so attentively to people that they suddenly find themselves able to understand and solve their own problems. Soon, the girl has many friends who care for her, give her food and other things she needs.

But then, the Grey Men appear and persuade people that the most important thing in life is to save time. However, the more time people save, the less it seems they actually have left! Yet they can't even remember ever having spoken to a Grey Man (or having agreed to hand over their free time to them) because they are so boring. People end up leading hectic and joyless lives without knowing why they chose to do so. As a side effect, Momo's friends don't have any more time for her. Momo's listening skills enable her to remember the Grey Men and find out that they steal the saved time to make cigars from hour flowers which they need to survive.

Suddenly Momo has become a threat to the Grey Men's plans and they try to kill her, but she is saved just in time by a tortoise who leads Momo to Master Hora, the administrator of time itself. He tells Momo that the Grey Men are disrupting the fabric of time and sends her off to stop them, armed with nothing more than a few hour flowers...

The main plot is obviously an all too real metaphor about how the hunt for efficiency makes people miserable, but the entire book is written very skillfully, using strong, timeless images and characters, well worth reading for adults as well as children.

The book was translated into English, but has been out of print for a while and is therefore hard to find. Spanish and, of course, German printings are still easily available. There is also a well-made (in Germany) movie based on the book, low-budget for Hollywood standards, but sporting a number of Germany's best actors and focussed on capturing the essence of the book rather than throwing together all the most attention-getting scenes from the book, implemented with flashy special effects. The English version of the movie may be easier to find than the translated book.