Bhutan, the small Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas with its magnificent temples and untouched mountain landscapes, is becoming increasingly popular with travelers. But what does Bhutan actually taste like?

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We explored Bhutan’s culinary traditions and evolving culinary scene on an individual press trip where we were able to create our own food-focused itinerary, meeting with a wide range of chefs and home cooks, producers and farmers:

• Staying with a family in the remote Haa Valley

We were only the second guest at „Jam Tshering Homestay“ that year in September, with only 2 % of travelers venturing into the remote Haa Valley. And even the managers of the luxury hotels we stayed at afterwards told us that we had experienced “the real Bhutan” by staying with a local family in Haa. The women of the house showed us not only how to make Bhutan’s national dish “ema datshi”, a spicy chilli cheese stew, but also “hoentay”, a special kind of momo dumplings made of buckwheat typical of the Haa Valley.

• Lunch at “Phangu” with chef Bleu Dorji, one of Bhutan’s top chefs

Chef Bleu Dorji is the only restaurateur in the country dedicated to modern Bhutanese cuisine: She serves creative dishes that remain deeply faithful to the flavors of her homeland at her restaurant “Phangu” on the outskirts of the capital Thimphu. For this, she travels across the country in search of recipes, preserves traditional cooking techniques, and supports small organic producers.

• Market visit at the largest vegetable market in the capital Thimphu with chef Bleu Dorji

Chef Bleu Dorji took us to the newly renovated and largest vegetable market in the capital Thimphu to tell us all about Bhutanese produce, such as Jangtse chilies, red rice, and datshi (cheese). She mentioned that she often has foreign visitors, but has never taken the time to show them around the market.

• Lunch at Nobgang, a women-run community restaurant in the hills of Punakha Valley

We then ventured into the hills of Punakha to visit „Nobgang BnB“, a pilot project in Bhutan supported by one of the Queen Mothers: a women-run community restaurant that preserves local recipes and empowers rural communities. We cooked “jatsa gongdo” together, a special egg dish local to the village of Nobgang.

• Mushroom foraging 

Mushrooms are an essential part of Bhutanese cuisine, and there are more than 400 different kinds of species of mushrooms in Bhutan. So we went mushroom foraging with Karma, the chairman of Genekha’s mushroom foraging association, one of two villages in Bhutan where Matsutake mushrooms, the most expensive mushrooms in the world, are found.

• Visit to “The Happiness Farm”, a sustainable farm with a focus on agroforestry in Paro

We visited “The Happiness Farm” in Paro, one of the most sustainable farms in the country with a focus on organic agriculture and agroforestry. Guests can stay overnight and dine at their farm-to-table restaurant. The owner, Dorji, used to work in public service, focusing on conservation, when one day, he decided to take matters into his own hands and start a farm.

• I’ve also included some typical Bhutan shots like landscapes with prayer flags, a nunnery, city scenes of the capital Thimphu and the places we stayed at.

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Of course, we can also provide videos to promote the story on social media. Here are some reels you might recognize from the Masterclass that beautifully capture the atmosphere of Bhutan, with a focus on food:

Staying with a family in Bhutan

Nobgang BnB, a women-run community restaurant in the hills of Punakha

A day with chef Bleu Dorji + market visit in Thimphu

Photos:

See below for a curated collection of photos.

More images available here: https://adobe.ly/4b6lsxL