Food and Drink in Bhutan

Bhutanese food is rice, chillies and cheese, in that order. A meal is a mound of rice with several small dishes around it, and the chilli is treated as a vegetable in its own right. It is plain, filling food.

Dishes to look for

Dish	What it is
Ema datshi	The national dish: a stew of hot chillies and cheese. You will be offered it everywhere
Red rice	The rice of the high valleys, nutty in taste, served with almost every meal
Phaksha paa	Pork cooked with chillies and radish or greens
Jasha maru	Chopped chicken cooked with tomato
Momo	Steamed dumplings, eaten as a snack
Hoentay	Dumplings made of buckwheat
Puta	Buckwheat noodles, from Bumthang

Cheese, called datshi, is made from cow's milk and goes into a whole family of dishes besides the one with chillies. Buckwheat is eaten mainly in Bumthang, and maize is common in the east.

How hot is it?

Cooked the way Bhutanese people eat it, very. Hotels and restaurants used by visitors cook more mildly, and will bring chillies on the side for anyone who wants them. Ask your guide to order ema datshi for the table at least once, at whatever strength you can manage.

On a tour

Breakfast and dinner are at your hotel, and lunch is at a restaurant on the way. Vegetarian food is easy everywhere. Tell us about any allergy or dietary need when you book, and we pass it on.

On a trek

The camp cook makes hot meals three times a day, and brings tea to your tent in the morning. Boiled water is supplied for your bottles.

What to drink

• Suja: butter tea, made with tea leaves, salt and butter. More like a thin soup than tea, and welcome on a cold morning.
• Ngaja: tea with milk.
• Ara: a drink made at home from rice or other grain.
• Beer is widely sold.

Drink bottled or boiled water, not water from the tap.

A custom worth knowing

When you are offered food in a Bhutanese house, it is polite to refuse at first, with the words "meshu, meshu" and a hand over your mouth, and then to give way at the second or third offer. Your host will keep offering.