Cooking the Bhutanese Way–simple but delicious

Bhutanese food is simple but delicious. The Bhutanese prepare yummy and appetizing food using simple methods, like cooking meats and vegetables in oil and water. Some may think that the food is bland, but the truth is, the food is delicious. Bhutanese do not need to go through complex and long methods of cooking to make their food delicious–they just add chillies and salt.

Short grain red rice is part of every Bhutanese banquet. It is sometimes flavored with saffron.

Bhutanese like eating cheese, like cow’s milk cheese and Yak  cheese, a favorite.

Mushrooms grow in abundance, with about 400 varieties, including the very expensive Shitake mushrooms.

Bhutanese tea, known as souza is the most popular beverage among the locals.

The Bhutanese like Tibetan specialties very much, like momo and noodles.

Here is a sampling of a typical Bhutanese banquet, which includes:

- buckwheat noodles (specialty noodles from Bumthang)

- buckwheat pancakes (specialty pancakes from Bumthang)

- momos (dumplings)

- vegetables (steamed or sauteed)

- meat or fish cooked with cheese (from cows or yaks)

- red rice

My personal favorite is their asparagus tips cooked in cheese, chillies and sprinkled with cashews.

This is a typical Bhutanese kitchen.