Bhutan Diaries: Top 5 Must try Bhutan Foods

Bhutanese cuisine employs a lot of red rice, buckwheat in Bumthang, and increasingly maize in Eastern districts. The diet in the hills also includes chicken, yak meat, dried beef, pork, and lamb. Soups and stews of meat, rice, ferns, lentils, and dried vegetables, spiced with chilli peppers and cheese, are a favorite meal during the cold seasons.

Authentic Bhutanese Cuisines in Ama restaurant, Thimphu

Restaurants here can serve Chinese, Nepalese, Tibetan, and Indian foods, which are very popular. Popular beverages include butter tea (called suja), milk tea (called ngaja), black tea, locally brewed ara (rice wine), and beer.

Indo-Bhutanese foods at Gangilokh hotel near Clocktower Thimphu

1. Ema datshi is a spicy dish made with large, green chili peppers in a cheesy sauce, which might be called the national dish for its ubiquity and the pride that Bhutanese have for it.

2. Chicken Thukpa: Made of Rice Noodles and is very popular in Bhutan.

3.kewi datshi: Made of Potatoes, Onions,Chilli powder, Garlic Etc.,

4. Jasha Maroo: Bhutanese Spicy Chicken stew

5.veg cheese momos: No need of introduction :P

Other foods include jasha maru (a chicken dish), phaksha paa (dried pork cooked with chili peppers, spices, and vegetables, including turnips, greens, or radishes), thukpa, bathup, and fried rice.

Lemon Tea & Butter Tea

 

Chicken Bathup

Lamb meat and bread

P.s: I don’t eat pork & beef. So I’m only mentioning dishes without it.. also don’t forget to try suja(butter tea) adapted from pho cha of Tibetan