Kewa is potato, so kewa datshi is potatoes and Bhutanese cheese. It surprised me by how similar kewa datshi is to a dish similar to scalloped potatoes.
The potatoes are typically sliced into thin pieces, then sautéed down with cheese and lots of butter. Sometimes cooks will toss in a few chilies or tomatoes, but usually, this is a Bhutanese dish that’s pretty mild, but just focuses on potatoes and cheese.
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2. Shamu datshi
A third staple cheese dish in Bhutanese food is shamu datshi, cheese with mushrooms.
Being a chili addict, ema datshi is my personal favorite variation of a Bhutanese veggie cheese dish, but shamu datshi was a close second. The mushrooms, which can be any variety of local Bhutanese Himalayan mushroom, are again, cooked into a cheesy saucy stew along with butter.
Just like with all the other variations of Bhutanese datshi, you eat shamu datshi along with rice.
3. Shakam ema datshi
If you haven’t already noticed, there’s just about no way you can go to Bhutan and eat Bhutanese food without eating lots of cheese. Datshi will probably one of the first words you learn in Dzongkha.
Shakam is Bhutanese dried beef, which is among the most famous of meats. The beef is dried and preserved so it tastes similar to beef jerky, but thicker, and not quite completely dehydrated.
For shakam datshi, dried beef is cut into bite sized pieces and simmered with cheese and butter. What a combo this is.
4. Shakam paa
Shakam paa is a wonderful Bhutanese food of dried beef cooked with dried chilies and sometimes slices of radish.
During my month staying in Bhutan, shakam paa quickly became one of my favorite protein dishes of choice. Again, the beef is slightly chewy from being dried and preserved, and it’s combined with lots of dry chilies.
One thing I loved about Bhutanese cooking is how the chilies are just tossed in whole — don’t worry about slicing things up and making them look pretty — you get the whole chilies in Bhutan, amazing.
5. Shakam shukam datshi
Shakam shukam datshi is a rather rare dish that you won’t find at too many restaurants in Bhutan, but when I had it for the first time at a local restaurant in Thimphu, I immediately fell in love with the combination and especially with the unique white chilies.
You probably recognize shakam and datshi already — chilies and cheese — but shukam are Bhutanese dried white chilies. So this Bhutanese dish includes cuts of dried beef cooked with cheese and white chilies. The white chilies ad an incredible sour spice which is quite unique.
6. Phaksha paa
Along with beef and yak, pork is also widely loved throughout Bhutan, perhaps the most of all meats.
For phaksha paa, slices of pork are stir fried with whole red dry chilies and sometimes some mountain vegetables as well. The result is another staple Bhutanese dish that goes great with rice and mixed in with some datshi dishes.
6. Sikam paa
Do you love bacon? Sikam paa is like bacon on the next level, and from my experience, this is a dish that many Bhutanese love with passion.
You’ll see strands of half transparent pork belly hanging in the sun to dry — that’s sikam. The pork, which has quite an impressive ratio of fat, is dried in the sun. For sikam paa, the dried pork belly is then is fried up with dried chilies.
I have to admit, sikam paa was pushing my oily food limits meter when I was in Bhutan. But a small piece at any meal, plus a bunch of the dry chilies, was what I most enjoyed about this famous Bhutanese dish.
7. Yaksha shakam
If there’s a meat that can be argued as better than dried beef, it’s dried yak meat. Yak is similar tasting to beef, but it has a little bit of a different fragrance (without being too gamey), and it supposedly is quite nutritional.
For yaksha shakam, the yak meat is dried into a jerky like meat and it can be cooked in a number of different ways. One of the best versions of dried yak meat that I ate in Bhutan was dried yak cut up and cooked with fermented yak cheese. It was a Bhutanese dish of dreams.
8. Goep
If you love tripe, goep in Bhutan, slices of tripe stir fried with dried chilies, green onions, and sometimes small vegetables, is an excellent dish.
Just like so many other famous Bhutanese dishes, what I liked most about eating g0ep in Bhutan are all the dried chilies that are included in this dish. The tripe can be a little on the chewy side, but that’s the real texture of tripe.
9. Juma
Juma is a type of common Bhutanese sausage made with minced meat, rice, and some light spices all filled into an intestines wrapper.
The first thing I could taste on my first bite of juma was the wonderful citrusy zing of Sichuan pepper. Other than that, most versions of Bhutanese juma I tasted were a little plain tasting, but very meaty.
10. Gondo datshi
Butter egg fry, or gondo datshi, is like the ultimate Bhutanese scrambled eggs you can imagine.
Eggs, are scrambled up with datshi cheese, and a huge amount of butter, and in some cases small bits of dried chili. The result is a very condensed scrambled egg cheese mixture that is fragrant from butter and packed with heartiness.
If you have some Bhutanese butter egg fry, some chili sauce and a mound of Himalayan red rice, you’re in for a wonderful simple meal.
11. Jasha maru
Jasha maru is Bhutanese chicken stew, or sometimes called a chicken curry.
One of the tastes I love so much about Bhutanese jasha maru is the noticeable ginger taste, that nearly every version of the dish had that I tried. The actual dry spice flavor is quite mild, but the ginger is what really gives this dish its essence.
12. Momos
Momos are dumplings that are popularly eaten from India to Nepal to Bhutan and known as a Tibetan food – basically the entire Himalayan region – and even broader, they are very similar to any type of dumpling around the world, probably originating from China.
Momos are easily the most common of all restaurant and street food snacks that you’ll find in Bhutan. They are served piping hot, filled with minced meat, cheese, or vegetables, and consumed with lots of Bhutanese chili sauce known as ezay.
You can get momos freshly steamed or also deep fried momos, which are fried in oil after being steamed. Let’s just say, you’ll be in no short supply of momos when you visit Bhutan.
13. 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).
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
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