BHUTANESE
CUISINE
Bhutanese
do love to eat, although their traditional ingredients are limited. To be sure,
yak meat is a favorite delicacy in season but the greatest passion of the Dragon
Kingdom undoubtedly is reserved for chilies, a ubiquitous and fiery part of
every dish, every day.
FOOD
AND DRINKS
Food is mainly of local variety with Indian, Chinese and Tibetan dishes
available at some of the places. The diet is rich in meat, cereal (Particularly
rice), vegetables and herbs, meat dishes-mainly pork and beef are often hotly
spiced with chilies. Favorite beverages include Chang, the local beer and arra
(local wine), a spirit distilled from rice, maize, wheat or barely.
Bhutanese
believe in lots and lots of rice with their curry, in exactly inverse
proportions to European preferences. It is not all uncommon for one person to
consume some 5 kg per week of the delectable grains.
Basically
only two kinds of rice are found here: red and white. The capital of Thimphu, at
about 2,400 meters, represents nearly the upper limit of the rice-growing
regions. In Bumthang, where buckwheat is the staple diet, the regional specialty
is puta, or earthy buckwheat noodles, while in Ha, it is hontay, rich buckwheat
momos (dumplings) filled with datshi (cheese) and vegetables such as spinach and
can also be pork filled. This is usually served only at New Year's or the end of
the harvest season.
Bhutanese
particularly like pork, fresh or, even better, dried. As with other meats,
notably beef and yak, they will use large chunks along with chili, radish and
spinach to make into pa, which is actually preferred to standard curry. Often
dried or boiled meat will be mixed only with surprise, surprise-chilies, Indeed,
as winter approaches, a typical decoration outside many households consists of
dozens of thin strups of drying yak or beef.
In most Bhutanese homes, whenever a guest arrives he or she will first be
offered tea, then a snack like zow, then doma (bettle nut with leaf and white
calcium paste) and, at last, homemade alcoholic drinks. Both the liquor and/or
tea also may serve as not only a starter, but as a closer, since Bhutanese do
not eat desserts.
Everyone
eats with his or hands: Rice is in one dish, curry in the other. With the palm
of the hand, you squeeze some rice into a small cylinder then dip it in the
curry, getting mostly sauce. You also pick up larger pieces of the curry by
hand. A t the end, mix the last of the rice in the curry bowl, then sip like a
soup.
And in
a tradition found around the globe as well as in Bhutan, leftovers will be
served at the next meal.
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Red Rice.
Ezay (Chilly Paste)
Zou (Dry fried Rice)
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