Bhutanese Cuisine

Bhutanese cuisine is the fiery, cheese-laden food of the last Himalayan Buddhist kingdom, where chilies are treated as a vegetable rather than a spice and every meal revolves around rice, cheese, and heat. Isolated by towering mountain passes and a deliberate policy of cultural preservation, Bhutan developed a cuisine almost entirely independent of outside influence until the late twentieth century. The staple crops of rice (red rice in the valleys, white rice imported to higher elevations) and buckwheat (in the highlands) have sustained Bhutanese communities for centuries. Tibetan influence is the strongest external force, contributing butter tea, momo dumplings, and noodle soups.

Indian flavors have filtered through the southern border regions. However, Bhutan's cuisine remains remarkably self-contained, with most traditional dishes using only locally produced ingredients. The national obsession with chilies, likely introduced from the Americas via India in the seventeenth century, defines every meal.

Datshi (local cheese made from yak or cow milk) is the other pillar, appearing in virtually every preparation. Chilies (both green and dried red, used as a primary vegetable), datshi (local farmers' cheese), red rice (nutty, partially milled Bhutanese rice), Sichuan pepper (yer ma), and dried beef or yak.