The Francophile and I have been home for a couple of weeks now after a three week birding safari in Bhutan. I finally got my hands on the photo files today.
Now, Bhutan is a small country up on the edge of the Himalayas, in the general vicinity of Tibet and Nepal. It is landlocked, bordered by China on one side and India on the other. Area-wise, small: about 15,000 square miles of mountains and narrow valleys. The population is small too: just under 700,000 people. Anyway, you can Google the details. Suffice to say, it’s a beautiful country and the least westernised of any place I’ve been.
We travelled with a small group: eight birders, three guides, a driver, and five members of a support team who fed us, put the tents up, and looked after the washing and toilet arrangements. The time was divided between staying in small hotels and guest houses, and camping. The food we were offered was, I suppose, a little westernised to cater for the less adventurous travellers – but we did get a flavour of Bhutanese cooking.
The food was fairly plain. Rice at lunch and dinner every day. Sometimes noodles too. Often potatoes. Mixed veg braised in a light spicy sauce or a mild (you could even say bland) cheese sauce. Fiddlehead ferns. Spinach sautéed in butter. Meat dishes rotated through chicken, beef, pork and fish. Soups were good: we particularly liked a mushroom soup with ginger in it and the cook obligingly made that two or three times. Restaurants usually offered dhal to go with your rice. Lightly spiced sauces were the order of the day, and there was always a bowl of hot chilli to add heat if you wanted it. The Bhutanese treat chilli as a vegetable, rather than a spice.
Breakfasts were more westernised than other meals, with a steady parade of eggs, bacon, porridge, boxed breakfast cereal and toast. I’m egged out. No more eggs for me for weeks, please.
Aware that Americans, Canadians and Australians observe Easter, the cook made us a special Easter Sunday dinner (as we camped high in the mountains beside a shallow noisy river) with a roast chicken and a frosted cake to go along with the usual rice and spicy vegetables.
The crew ate separately, a more typical Bhutanese diet. Rice – large serves of it, with hot chillies – formed the basis of every meal, including breakfast.
I thought the crew did a fantastic job of preparing food for 17 people, cooking outdoors over a gas burner. I love Asian food, and rice agrees with me, so I enjoyed what we ate. However, we’ve declared a moratorium on rice at home for a little while yet …
