Ema datshi, and eating in Bhutan

Bhutanese food is the part of the country visitors are least prepared for. Not because it is difficult, but because it is genuinely unlike the cuisines it sits between. There is little of India here, and less of China.

The national dish

Ema datshi is green chillies stewed with a soft local cheese until it becomes something between a curry and a fondue. In most cuisines the chilli is a seasoning. Here it is the main ingredient, and the dish is built around its heat rather than in spite of it. Variants swap the chilli for potato, mushroom or fern.

Red rice

Grown in the Paro and Punakha valleys, nutty and slightly sticky, and served with almost everything. It is the constant against which the rest of the meal is measured.

Ask for a dish to be made mild and it will still be hot. Bhutanese mild is not a category that translates.

What else you will meet

Momos, the dumplings shared across the Himalaya, steamed or fried. Phaksha paa, pork belly with dried chillies and radish. Kewa datshi, the potato version, which is where most visitors start. Suja, butter tea churned with salt, which is closer to a broth than a drink and which you should try at least once in a farmhouse rather than a hotel.

Eating well as a visitor

Hotel buffets tend to soften everything for foreign palates, which is understandable and a shame. The best meals happen in farmhouses, where the food is what the family is eating. Ask your guide to arrange one. It is usually the meal people remember.

Drinking

Ara, a distilled grain spirit, sometimes served warm with egg. Bhutan also brews good beer. Tobacco sales were banned outright for years and remain heavily restricted.