All journal Destination December 2025
Farm-to-table feasts: eating your way through Bhutan
Ema datshi, red rice, buckwheat noodles and a national organic movement — Bhutanese food is a great deal more interesting than its reputation suggests.
Bhutan intends to become the world’s first fully organic nation. Chemical fertilisers are largely absent, holdings are small, and almost everything on the table has travelled a very short distance to reach it.
Ema datshi
Chilli and cheese, eaten at nearly every meal. In Bhutan the chilli is treated as a vegetable rather than a seasoning, which explains both the quantity and the heat. Ask for it mild and you will still find it warm.
The regional table
Red rice in the west, buckwheat pancakes and noodles in Bumthang, dried yak in the highlands, and river-caught fish in the warmer south. The country eats seasonally because there is no alternative.
Farm tastings and food trails
We arrange lunches in farmhouse kitchens where the cooking is done over a wood stove and the vegetables are picked while you wait, alongside visits to cheese makers, distillers and the Sunday market in Thimphu.
It is not fine dining, and it is not trying to be. It is a fair bit better than that.
