Hoentay
Known especially for originating from Haa Valley in Bhutan, hoentay are similar to momos, but they are made with a buckwheat dough wrapper. The dumplings are usually filled with a combination of a local spinach or turnip leaves and cheese, and again, they can either be steamed or fried.
When I was in Haa Valley for a few days, I enjoyed numerous plates of hoentay, which are hearty and filling, and are especially good when drowned in Bhutanese chili sauce (ezay).
Lom
Due to the harsh winter conditions in many areas of Bhutan, vegetables can sometimes be scarce in the winter. Lom, which are turnip leaves, are one of the few vegetables that can be dried and preserved and eaten throughout the year. The actual turnips themselves are fed to the livestock.
For lom, it can be sautéed by itself, or cooked with some sikam (dried pork) to give it some extra delicious flavor.
I really enjoyed eating lom when I spent some time in Phobjikha Valley. At the farm house I stayed at, they had turnip leaves hanging above the wood burning fire, drying out and ready to re-hydrate and eat at any point throughout winter.
Khatem
I’ve been fascinated and loved eating bitter melon / gourd for many years now, which is called khtem in Bhutan. Something about eating something so bitter, which sometimes kind of throws off your taste buds, is exciting to me.
In Bhutan I noticed mostly Indian bitter melon as opposed to the longer Chinese biter melon. Bitter melon in Bhutanese cuisine is often sliced into thin chip like pieces and fried with butter and a little seasoning. I had it in Bhutan for breakfast a few times.
Jaju
Jaju is Bhutanese milk and vegetable soup. It’s often made with some type of local spinach or turnip leaves or any number of light leafy vegetables. The soup broth consists of milk and butter. Overall, the taste is usually quite mellow and plain, but it goes well together to supplement a full Bhutanese feast.
When I was in Bhutan I ate some versions of jaju that were very light while others included a bit of cheese to make them heartier and more rich.
Goen hogay
Although many Bhutanese dishes can be pretty meat heavy, goen hogay is a traditional Bhutanese cucumber salad.
Cucumber is sliced up and mixed with chili flakes, tomato, cilantro, onions, Sichuan pepper, and a crumble of datshi cheese for extra flavor. Sometimes some extra oil is also added to the recipe to give it a dressing like sauce.
I found goen (cucumber) hogay to be a very refreshing Bhutanese vegetarian dish and ordered it at every chance I could. I especially enjoyed the Sichuan pepper zing it often comes with.
Khur-le
Especially common as a Bhutanese breakfast food and for on the go eating in Bhutan, khur-le is a Bhutanese pancake made from buckwheat, wheat, or barley flour.
You typically eat khur-le along with Bhutanese main dishes, like ema datshi or shakam datshi, or even just with eggs and ezay (chili sauce). When I was in Haa Valley, Bhutan, I ate khur-le just about every day at my home-stay for breakfast.
They have a spongy texture, but are a bit more hearty and filling than a white wheat flour pancake. They are the type of pancake you want to be eating in a cold climate.
Zaow
At just about every local home I visited in Bhutan, they would offer milk tea (chai) or suja (butter tea) plus a communal basket of puffed rice known as zaow.
Zaow is not too puffy but more on the crunchy side rather than the puffy side — it has a texture almost like the crunchiness of un-popped popcorn. It’s a Bhutanese snack food that’s very common and it goes so well together with a cup of tea.
Sometimes zaow is eaten with chunks of butter mixed in. The most memorable version of zaow I was served in Bhutan was in Phobjikha Valley, and it came with a frighteningly large chunk of butter on top!
Ezay
There’s no way I would compile a list of Bhutanese food without paying full respect to ezay, which refers to any kind of Bhutanese chili sauce.
Now you might be thinking, chili sauce is not really a food… but in Bhutan, ezay is so mandatory to eat with every meal that it can be considered a dish of its own. And sometimes it’s almost more like a salad than a chili sauce.
From my first meal to my last meal in Bhutan, I couldn’t get enough ezay. And I don’t care what I’m eating, ezay literally goes with and complements every Bhutanese food you can imagine.
Just like ema datshi, there are no two ezays that taste the same. Everyone in Bhutan has their own recipe and combination of ingredients. A couple of my favorites include dried chilies, Sichuan pepper, tree tomato (amazing ingredient), and a sprinkle of cheese for extra flavoring.
Traditional style of eating Bhutanese food
Along with having some amazing and unique dishes in Bhutan, another thing that never fails to fascinate me around the world is the culture that revolves around eating, and Bhutan food culture runs deep.
Wooden bowls
In Bhutan, traditionally food is served in and eaten from beautiful wooden bowls, and you’ll still often be served food in wooden bowls at traditional restaurants and some local homes.
However, due to ease of use and being easier to clean, eating from wooden bowls are becoming less common on a daily basis in Bhutan.
The wooden bowls brings us to the next point, eating with your fingers.
Eating with your fingers
Like in much of Asia, the traditional method of eating is with you fingers. And, as the owner of the Folk Heritage Museum and Restaurant in Thimphu explained to me, if you use metal cutlery on traditional wooden Bhutanese bowls, it scratches and ruins them — so it’s better to use your fingers.
One of the traditional methods of eating Bhutanese food is to smash a little bit of red rice into a small ball, then scoop up a dish of your choice.
Another method, I tried to learn and got a little messy, is to eat some of a dish with your fingers, then for the rice, put it in the palm of your hand and toss it into your mouth, similar to eating and tossing peanuts into your mouth.
Comments
Post a Comment