Food (= chillies) in Bhutan

"In Bhutan, chilli is not a spice. It is a vegetable."

These were some of the wise words I was told during the flash introduction to culture, security and practical issues in Bhutan by the UN security officer during my first week. Since then, I have been asked the question "how are you coping with the food here?" in a worried tone, as not everyone is as fond of chillies in every single dish as the Bhutanese are.

Selection of Bhutanese dishes at the Folk Heritage Museum restaurant. Chilli sauce (ezay) in the front, ema datshi (chillies and cheese) third bowl from the front.

Luckily, I was a chilli lover even before coming here, so the experience has not been as extreme as it could be. An average Bhutanese household can use one large sack of chillies (2 kg or so) in one week. It is hard to think of a proper Bhutanese meal without them - and yet chillies are a recent import, perhaps only 100-200 years old. Nowadays Bhutanese staple food usually consists of rice (domestic red rice or imported white rice), cottage cheese and chillies in some form. The three favourite dishes for vegetarians are:

• ema datshi (chillies with cheese, the unofficial national dish)
• shamu datshi (mushrooms with cheese)
• kewa datshi (potatoes with cheese, my personal favourite)
• nakey datshi (wild ferns with cheese)

Red rice in the middle; some wild ferns on the upper left side; and momos on the lower right side.

Besides rice, especially in higher altitudes people also eat wheat and buckwheat. The central region of Bhutan, Bumthang, is famous for its khuley (buckwheat pancakes) and puta (buckwheat noodles). Despite the general Buddhist prohibition of killing, people at least in the urban areas seem to be eating a lot of meat, such as sikam paa (dried pork).

Tibetan style dishes make up the list of fast food, with momos (steamed or fried dumplings, either filled with cheese and vegetables, pork or beef), thukpa or bathuk (noodle soup) available on the street in the evenings and in little restaurants during the day. The most famous Tibetan drink is suja, salty butter tea which I have learnt to like, although I still prefer ja, the normal tea (hopefully I will learn to pronounce ja correctly before I leave...).

Fast food at the vegetable market: beef thukpa on the left, cheese momos with chilli sauce on the right.

Looking at the garbage thrown on the streets of Thimphu, nowadays the most common snacks are imported potato chips and noodles. However, when visiting people's homes or Bhutanese restaurants, usually some zaw (toasted rice) or corn flakes are offered first, to be eaten as they are or put in the tea. Many shops and markets also sell chugo, cubes of hard, dried cheese that I have not dared to taste yet. 

Finally, the "snack" one cannot miss seeing in Bhutan: doma, betel leaf and areca nut with lime paste. According to Kunzang Choden in her book Chilli and Cheese: Food and Society in Bhutan (2008), doma belongs to the general category of trozay, "food for enjoyment". Although doma is claimed not to be addictive, the behaviour of regular users, chewing it almost constantly does hint otherwise. Doma relaxes and gives a momentary high while heating up the body (very useful now when the winter is approaching). However, chewing it is also bad for your teeth and causes oral cancer. According to the GNH Survey in 2010, around half of the Bhutanese population consume doma, women even more (51 %)  than men (47 %). Red stains, the result of people spitting the remains of doma from their mouth on the streets and stairways are also a telling testimony of the popularity of the habit.

After all this writing about food, it's dinner time and now we're off to cook nakey datshi, the wild ferns with cheese with this simple recipe. Let's see how it goes!