Ladakh Cuisine

A lot of people visit Ladakh for its cuisine. There are a lot of unique and interesting food items in Ladakh. Ladakh’s cuisine is a mixture of Tibetan, Chinese, Continental and Korean dishes. Let us discuss about the cuisine of Ladakh and the list of delicacies that you should never miss in Ladakh.

Top ingredients in Ladakh cuisine

This cuisine includes a lot of nuts and dried fruits in its many dishes. Walnut, almond, raisins are some of the top ingredients. Dry ginger, saffron and hing are some of unique flavouring items in this cuisine. Staple ingredients include rice, pumpkin, potato, beans and beetroot.
Milk from Yak and milk products are very common here and they are considered to be a delicacy.

Staple food

The staple food of Ladakh is Tsampa. It is made by roasting and grinding barley. It is mixed with salt water and is served with pink tea or butter tea. Chang is a local beer that is consumed with Tsampa. Butter tea has a salty flavour and it is drunk to keep lips from cracking due to the cold climate.

Top delicacies in Ladakh

The top delicacies that you should try are

• Pava – a dish made by boiling pea in barley flour

• Khambish – soft wheat bread

• Thukpa – wheat flour noodles with meat sauce

• Gugar Chai – green tea made with soda, butter and milk

• Yak milk, cheese and curd

• Moe Moe – steamed dough with meat in middle.

• Gyatug – vermicelli dish with minced meat and sauce

• Skir – one pot dish of potato, meat and grain

• Kambir – sweet bread

• Holkur – local biscuit made of nuts and grains

Top meals

Momos is the top dish that you ought to try here. There are a lot of different types of momos based on the dipping, stuffing and the dough. Saag, dam aaloo, lotus root, korma sag and apricot jam are top specialities in vegetarian section. Most of the people in Ladakh are non-vegetarians and thus, you can find a lot of specialities in this section.

• Thukpa – noodles cooked in lamb soup

• Skieu – dish of flour made with vegetables and lamb

• Yakhni – fried ribs

• Roghan Josh – curried lamb cooked in yogurt of Yak

• Gushtaba – meat balls in yogurt sauce

• Rista – rice balls served with savoury sauce

• Marchwangan Korma – curried lamb in thick sauce served with naan (bread)

Traditional meal

Ladkah’s traditional meal is called Wazawan. It is a 36-course dish that has been in the culture from 15th century. Wazawan includes mostly non-vegetarian dishes of lamb. Top vegetables that you can see in this feast are potato, beetroot, beans and pumpkin.

In this blissful place of Ladakh, you can find a lot of authentic and traditional eateries. You can also find a few international cuisine hotels. If you want to enjoy a real traditional Ladakh cuisine, you should be invited for a home meal by some locals. There are a few restaurants that serve home meals too.

Choose such places to enjoy the real taste of Ladakh. Yak cheese delicacies and momos with butter milk should be the three things that you should never miss in Ladakh.