Local Dishes

1. ཨེ་མ་དར་ཚི།

   E ma dar tshi

   Ema datshi (chillies stewed in cheese)

   Usage

   Bhutan's national dish. It is also called the "རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་ཚོདམ" (national curry) and is made with chillies, cheese, onion, tomato (བླམ་བན་ད), garlic, oil and salt. ⚠ In Bhutan chillies are a vegetable, not a spice — expect far more heat than the name suggests

   Grammar Note

   Glossed "chilli curry prepared in cheese". The "…datshi" pattern is productive: mixing potato into ema datshi gives ཀེ་བ་དར་ཚི (kewa datshi)

2. ཀེ་བ་དར་ཚི།

   Ke wa dar tshi

   Kewa datshi (potatoes stewed in cheese)

   Usage

   The everyday favourite after ema datshi. It can be made with white or red potatoes, but red is the usual one in Bhutan. It is mild, so at Losar and festivals it is the dish given to children who cannot eat chillies

   Grammar Note

   ཀེ་བ is "the name of the vegetable potato"; it grows at any altitude

3. ཕག་ཤ་པགས།

   Phaksha paa

   Phaksha paa (pork with dried red chillies)

   Usage

   A treat for meat-eaters, alongside ཤ་སྐམ་པགས; served piled "མཐོ་གང" (a span high) at festivals (དགའ་སྟོན) and annual rites (ལོ་ཆོག), fried in oil with red chillies and onion

   Grammar Note

   ཕག་ཤ = pork. The second element is spelt པགས and appears as "paa" on English menus (a final -གས lengthens the vowel in Dzongkha)

4. ཤ་སྐམ་པགས།

   Sha kam pag

   Shakam paa (dried meat with chillies)

   Usage

   The other festival treat, alongside phaksha paa. Made from dried meat, so it is chewy and strongly flavoured — usually beef air-dried under the eaves in winter

   Grammar Note

   DDC glosses ཤ་སྐམ as "dried meat", with the Dzongkha note ཤ་རློནམ་མེན་པ ("not raw meat")

5. མོ་མོ།

   Mo mo

   Momo (steamed dumpling)

   Usage

   There are three kinds: ཤའི་མོ་མོ (meat), ཚོད་བསྲེའི་མོ་མོ (vegetable) and དར་ཚིའི་མོ་མོ (cheese). The cheese one is the Bhutanese speciality. Two shapes are made — long "like an eye", or gathered round at the top. Sold in most eating houses

   Grammar Note

   The English gloss is "dumpling". A wrinkled face is teasingly called "a momo face"

6. ཧོན་སྟོད།

   Hoen toe

   Hoentoe (Haa buckwheat dumpling)

   Usage

   ⚠ A dish of Haa district (ཧཱ་རྫོང་ཁག). Buckwheat (བྱཱོ) and wheat (རྒྱ་རེད) dough filled with grated གཡུང་རྡོག pressed under stones overnight to drain, dried greens (ལོམ), cheese and nuts (སྟར་གོ), then steamed. Eaten with the family at Lomba (ལོམ་བ), the Haa new year, and sent to relatives living elsewhere

   Grammar Note

   Besides ཧོན་སྟོད, it is also spelled ཧོན་ཏེ

7. པུ་ཏ།

   Pu ta

   Puta (Bumthang buckwheat noodles)

   Usage

   ⚠ A dish of Bumthang district. Buckwheat flour (བྱཱོ་ཕྱེ) pressed into noodles with a wooden press called པུ་ཏ་པར, then tossed with chilli powder (ཨེ་ཕྱེ), spring-onion leaves, oil and egg or beef. Not everyday food — it is the packed lunch at a tshechu festival and the dish served at rites

   Grammar Note

   The English gloss is "noodles". It is customarily sent in a bangchung basket, which is returned with money in it rather than empty

8. བྱང་བུ་ལི།

   Jang bu li

   Jangbuli (Bumthang buckwheat dish)

   Usage

   ⚠ A dish of Bumthang district. Plain buckwheat flour (རྗེན་ཕྱེ) kneaded by hand, rolled out, cut with a blade, boiled and then tossed with a full curry and hot oil. Unlike puta it takes no skill, so households make it often; it is also thinned with milk into a soup

9. བྱ་རྒྱུ།

   Ja gyu

   Jaju (thin milk-and-greens side dish)

   Usage

   A thin, broth-heavy dish made with few ingredients, served as a "ཟུར་ཐེབས" (extra side) beside a dry curry. It calls for spinach (ཧོན་ཚོད) or dried greens (ལོམ), cheese, tomato, milk, butter, ginger, garlic and chilli powder

   Grammar Note

   The English gloss is "vegetarian curry". English menus write it "jaju"

10. ཐུགཔ།

    Thugp

    Thukpa (hot morning soup)

    Usage

    It is the contracted form of ཐུག་པ, "drunk in the morning". The first morning of the new year likewise begins with ཐུགཔ. ⚠ Across the Himalaya the word usually means a noodle soup, but in Dzongkha it is a hot soup in general — noodles are not guaranteed

    Grammar Note

    DDC gives it as the equivalent of English "porridge". The final -པ is Dzongkha's suffixed form (the same pattern as ཕགཔ, ལགཔ), written differently from the Classical Tibetan spelling ཐུག་པ

11. ཆུམ་དམརཔོ།

    Chum marp

    Bhutanese red rice

    Usage

    The rice you are normally served. A half-milled red grain that keeps a pink tinge when cooked, stickier and nuttier than white rice. The red rice of Lingmukha (གླིང་མུ་ཁ) in Punakha is especially famous

    Grammar Note

    ཆུམ་དམརཔོ is paired with ཆུམ་དཀརཔོ (white rice). དམརཔོ is the Dzongkha suffixed form, distinct from the Classical Tibetan spelling དམར་པོ

12. ཚོདམ།

    Tshoem

    Curry (the cooked dish served with rice)

    Usage

    The heading word on a menu. The datshi dishes and jaju alike are "ཚོདམ་གྱི་རིགས" (a kind of tshoem), so it is the cover term for the cooked dish served alongside rice (ཆུམ). A useful word when asking what there is to eat

    Grammar Note

    The English gloss is "curry". It is the suffixed form of ཚོད་མ, written ཚོདམ in Dzongkha

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