Bhutan - Lindsay Brown [73]
Although there is plenty of white rice, the Bhutanese prefer a locally produced red variety, which has a slightly nutty flavour. At high altitudes where rice is not available, wheat and buckwheat are the staples. Zow is rice that is boiled and then fried. It’s sometimes mixed with sugar and butter and is commonly carried in a bangchung (covered basket). In Bumthang khule (buckwheat pancakes) and puta (buckwheat noodles) replace rice as the foundation of many meals. A common snack food in the east is gesasip, corn (maize) that has been fried and beaten.
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DRINKS
Nonalcoholic Drinks
Indian-style sweet milky tea (ngad-ja) is widely available and may be served in a pot, but more often it appears as a cup with a tea bag. Bhutanese frequently drink sud-ja, Tibetan-style tea with salt and butter, which is more like soup than tea, and surprisingly tasty and warming on a cold day. Filter coffee and espresso is available in the top-end hotels and a few restaurants in Thimphu, but elsewhere ‘coffee’ is invariably of the instant variety.
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Bhutan has 28 beekeepers employing European honeybees. In spring look for white transparent honey produced from white clover, while in winter enjoy the very dark honey from buckwheat flowers.
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Avoid drinking tap water anywhere in Bhutan and remember that the flasks in hotel rooms are sometimes filled with untreated water. Bottled mineral water is widely available and most restaurants will give you boiled water to drink if you ask for it. For advice on water purification, Click here.
Alcoholic Drinks
The only beer brewed in Bhutan is the very good Red Panda weissbier, an unfiltered wheat beer bottled in Bumthang. Throughout the country there’s an ample supply of imported canned beer – Tiger from Singapore and Singha from Thailand, or several brands of Indian beer, which comes in large (650mL) bottles. The most popular brands are Black Label, Golden Eagle and Dansberg from Sikkim. If you want a cheap high, try one of the brands with 8% alcohol content: Hit, Volcano or 10,000.
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Throughout the country alcohol is not served before 1pm and after midnight. Tuesday is a ‘dry day’ when hotels and restaurants don’t serve alcohol.
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There are several brands of whisky, including Special Courier, Black Mountain Whisky (better known as ‘BMW’), Royal Supreme and Changta, the cheapest. The better brands compare favourably with good Scotch whisky. There are local rums: XXX Bhutan Rum is the strongest, and gins such as Crystal and Pacham. Most hotels also have a stock of international brands.
Wine is available at the duty-free shop in Thimphu, though it is likely to be expensive and disappointing.
The most common local brew is bang chhang, a warm beerlike drink made from wheat. The favourite hard drinks are arra, a spirit distilled from rice, and sinchhang, which is made from millet, wheat or rice.
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VEGETARIAN & VEGANS
There is a good variety of vegetarian food available, although much of it is made using a liberal amount of chilli and a smothering of cheese sauce. Ingredients such as nettles, fern fronds, orchids, asparagus, taro and several varieties of mushrooms appear in traditional Bhutanese vegetarian dishes. Vegans should ask if a dish contains cheese (or eggs) when ordering.
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Look for fresh asparagus from April to June, and wild mushrooms, apples and peaches later in the summer when mangoes and avocados from the south also appear. Papaya hits the stalls in March and April.
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HABITS & CUSTOMS
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