Ema datshi and butter tea: a guide to Bhutanese food

Bhutanese food is simple, warming and built around one surprise: chillies are treated as a vegetable, not a seasoning.

Ema datshi

The national dish is ema datshi: green or red chillies cooked in a sauce of melted cheese (datshi). It is eaten with almost every meal, usually alongside red rice, a nutty, slightly sticky rice grown in the Paro valley. Close cousins are kewa datshi (potatoes and cheese) and shamu datshi (mushrooms and cheese), both gentler on the tongue.

Other dishes to try

• Momos: dumplings filled with cheese, vegetables or meat.
• Phaksha paa: pork cooked with dried chillies and radish.
• Jasha maru: spicy minced chicken stew.
• Hoentay: buckwheat dumplings from the Haa valley.

Suja, the butter tea

Suja is tea churned with butter and salt. It tastes closer to a light soup than to the tea most visitors know, and it is the drink you will be offered in farmhouses and monasteries. Taking a sip is polite, even if you do not finish it. Sweet milk tea (ngaja) is also widely served.

Too hot?

Hotels often cook a milder version for visitors. If you would like to try the real thing, say so, and if you would like it gentler, ask for the dish "less spicy". Our guides know the farmhouse kitchens worth the detour.