Dining in Bhutan

Bhutanese food with strong Tebitian and Indian influences are spicy and varied.. Most meals are served buffet style and consist of several dishes. Traditional Bhutanese food always features chillies, and one dish called emadatsi, actually uses hot green chillies as the vegetable rather than seasoning. Other popular dishes (with chillies) are phak sha laphu, stewed pork with radish, no sha huentseu, stewed beef with spinach, and bja sha maroo, chicken in garlic and butter sauce. You will find that most of your meals revolve around chicken, pork, and cheese or vegetables and are accompanied by rice – either white or the locally produced Bhutanese red variety, which has a nutty taste. Tibetan dishes including momos, which are steamed dumplings with a vegetable or meat filling and thukpa, a noodle soup are also common in Bhutan. In Bumthang, buckwheat pancakes and noodles replace rice as the favourite staple.
The hotel restaurants offer Bhutanese cuisine, as well as Chinese, Indian, Japanese and some other international food. Locally cooked traditional Bhutanese food is served during treks.
In Bhutan there is a good variety of vegetarian food available – even if much of it is made with chillies! Unusual ingredients such as nettles, ferns and orchids may also appear in traditional Bhutanese vegetarian dishes.
The most popular drink is sud-ja (tea served with salt and butter).Other drinks include buttered and sweet teas and delicious fruit juices.
Bottled water and soft drinks – Pepsi cola, lemonade and orangeade – can be found almost anywhere, as can fruit juices of which apple deserves special mention.
Many alcoholic drinks like beer, rum and whisky are imported from India and relatively cheap.
Bhutan's alcoholic drinks include chang (brewed from fermented cereals) and arra, which is stronger and distilled from either rice, barley or wheat. Locally produced beer and whiskey can also be found in some places.