Sikkim Food

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"They'll eat anything with legs, except the tables and chairs--and they're working on that."
--heard again at dinner, about the Chinese

This was the local Sikkim cuisine at the Tashi Delek restaurant here in Gangtok. I won't bother checking OED.


SEW CHANG--A traditional Sikkimese drink. Long bamboo containers are filled with millet and soaked with boiled water to be sipped through delicate bamboo straws. The recipe for making 'pho' local yeast, which is used for fermentation, is a fiercely guarded secret. The taste has been compared to "sake".
(Kitty litter with hot water, if you ask me--ed.)

KHANYOE SUE TSE--This flavorful soup is made from a unique cucumber, originally discovered in Sikkim. One of its aspects is the sheer size, which often reaches lengths of over two feet!

KHURI--A delicacy of griddle roasted bread created from buckwheat filled with sauteed greens and cottage cheese.

SEU--This land is also known by the ancient name "Demazong"--or Hidden valley. Rice is grown in adbundance on the lush terraced paddy that you see across the verdant hills.

GYARI--A succulent dish of prime cuts of pork, pot roasted with herbs and spices--served hot or cold, thinly sliced.

GNYA--River fish caught in the wild mountain streams and farms are wrapped in greens and baked in fresh bamboo sleees to impart a flavour so sublime it must be tasted to be believed.
(Scrawny, bony things. Someone got a bone in her throat while eating it--ed.)

PHYA SHA--Free range chicken flavored with ginger and simmered in butter with a touch of tumeric, believed to have great rejuvenating value--the antidote for coughs and colds!

SOUCHA--Hard to gather but delicious to eat is this exotic, seasonal favourite, made from the leaves of stinging nettles and may be sered with or without minced meat.

KAYTSEU--A seasonal favourite made from only the most tender tips of young fern which grow abundantly in these mountains are sauteed in butter--fabulous!

BARHEY--Sikkim, a land so lush with orchids we even eat them! Rare and exotic, edible orchids hae a very short season but luckily they can be pickled. So delicious, that we often savour them alone with rice.
(The orchids were not in season. I said I'd take two rhododendrons, and make it snappy--ed.)

DHO--The new shoots of indigenous bamboo, tender and mild--when not in season are pickled in hot mustard oil for use round the year.

LAPSE--Wild, sour berries pickled in flavorful spices served as an accouterment to many Sikkimese dishes.

JHEKAR--Finely ground sauce made from red or green peppers. The most potent chillies savoured in these mountains are known as "Akbarey" or "Dallay". They can bepickled too!

CHUBENDA--Cottage cheese with a subtle flavour is traditionally blended with fresh tomatoes and spices.

MOMOS--Steamed dumplings filled with minced chicken, vegetables or cottage cheese and ensconced in a thin flour layer. Served piping hot with a sauce of fresh cottage cheese blended with herbs and chilly.
(Great, as usual--ed.)

GYAKHO--This delicacy is known to have been made using as many as 108 ingredients and is traditionally served at all weddings and other auspicious occasions. Akin to the Mongolian Hot Pot, this dish is served in an ornate metal vessel kept hot with its own flame, unique to this delicacy.
(Fabulous!--ed.)