The Washington Post’s Emily Wax goes to a market in Thimpu, Bhutan’s capital, to sample yak cheese and other local cuisine.
Ah . . . steaming plates of chilies swimming in yak cheese. Tea churned with butter and salt. Gooey boiled ferns.
These are some highlights of the traditional diet of Bhutan — a tiny Himalayan nation nestled between the two culinary and geographic giants of China and India. It’s a gastronomy that is little known but often disparaged: Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl has been quoted as calling Bhutan’s “the world’s worst cuisine.”
And you can try it for yourself next week, when Bhutan will be the featured nation at the 42nd annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, beginning Wednesday on the Mall. Dorjee Tshering, director of Bhutan’s department of culture, can hardly wait for you to have the experience.
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