Bhutan

Fiery chili-and-cheese dishes, red rice, buckwheat and yak dairy define high-altitude Bhutanese cooking. That is the short version of what Bhutan cooks. Look for Ema Datshi (national dish of chilies cooked in melted cheese sauce), Phaksha Paa (pork slices braised with whole red chilies and mountain greens) and Shakam Paa (sun-dried beef stir-fried with dried chilies and radish). Bhutan’s national dish, chillies stewed in local cheese; chillies arrived through Tibet and India and are treated here as a vegetable, not a seasoning. This atlas has 32 Bhutan dishes catalogued below, from everyday cooking to food kept for festivals and special occasions.