As part of the April trip to Bhutan, our group took a cooking class in Bumthang, near Central Bhutan. I think this is a quite uncommon activity for tours to Bhutan and it was one of my favorite things we did in our nearly two weeks in-country.

The class was held in the kitchen of our hotel. It was obvious that this was a well-organized kitchen. Our group was large (there must have been 15 “cooks”!) which could have slowed everything down, but with the help of the hotel’s owner and his amazing staff, we managed to pull together a full meal in less than 2 hours. Our menu consisted of:

A beef and potatoes dish
Chilli & cheese (the national dish)
Buckwheat noodles with spices and veggies
Ara (the local homemade wine)

Here are the Bhutan Recipes we created (PDF).

I think that we in the West, OK, Americans, suffer from over-spicing our food. We forget that simple seasonings added to quality, fresh ingredients are often all that’s needed. The Bhutanese have an abundance of fresh vegetables and serve these with small amounts of meat (this isn’t necessarily for health reasons but because the availability simply isn’t there). Their simple combinations make for some really tasty dishes that allow you to really enjoy the fresh locally produced ingredients.

And, here are photos from the highlights of this experience:

Our cooking host

The gals cutting up meat and potatoes

Mixing buckwheat flour by hand

The gals making the noodles by sitting on the press!

Final dish of buckwheat noodles and spices

Peppers being prepped for Chilli & Cheese (dish shown at top)

Travel Well,

Beth

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Related links:
Bhutan April, 2009 Update 5
Bhutan April, 2009 Update 4
Bhutan April, 2009 Update 3
Bhutan April, 2009 Update 2
Bhutan April, 2009 Update 1
Photo of the Day: Bhutan Architecture
Bhutan Tour – Buddhism-focused co-ed trip
Bhutan Tour – Photography trip with Brenda Tharp
Beth’s Bhutan Photo Gallery