Food in Bhutan

Bhutan, a very unique country in the world, its food culture and history is one of a kind. A typical Bhutanese food contains lot of chilly and cheese, the combination of which is called ‘Ema Datshi’, Ema meaning chilly and Datshi meaning cheese in Bhutanese national language. Likewise, cheese is added in almost all kinds of vegetables and the dish gets the name accordingly. For example a combination of cheese with potatoes is called ‘Kewa Datshi’ , Kewa meaning potatoes. Along with this kind of curry dishes, goes rice which is consumed heavily in every household in Bhutan, the red one being more common.
Another typical Bhutanese food culture is consumption of dried vegetables and dried meat. If you visit the weekends vegetable market in Thimphu or any other district, you will notice that the local farmers sell a lot of dried vegetables. This culture goes long way with Bhutan’s history. Bhutan is a landlocked country and it did not open up to the outside world until 1970s because of which green vegetables in winter were not available specially in higher altitude areas. Hence, Bhutanese dried vegetables to sustain during cold winter days and hence it is now in the habit of every Bhutanese to consume a lot of dried vegetables.