What to eat in Sikkim and Darjeeling

The food of Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kalimpong comes from the people who live there: Nepali-speaking communities, who make up most of the population, Bhutia and Tibetan families, and the Lepcha, the oldest inhabitants of Sikkim. Each has its own dishes, and they have borrowed from one another for generations. The result is simple, warming food built on rice, dal, greens, pork, chicken, cheese and chilli, with noodles and dumplings from the Tibetan side.

Most of it is cheap. A plate of momos costs ₹80–200, a bowl of thukpa or a thali ₹120–250, and a full meal in a local restaurant in Gangtok ₹200–450. Hotel restaurants charge much more for the same dishes, often cooked less well. The best food is usually in small family places near the market, in homestays, and at stalls in the morning.

If your stomach is sensitive, start with steamed momos and thukpa before moving on to fermented foods and the hottest chillies. Vegetarians eat well everywhere: vegetable and cheese momos, dal, greens and many Nepali dishes are meat-free.

Momos came to the hills from Tibet and are now the everyday snack of the whole region. They are dumplings of thin wheat dough folded around a filling of pork, chicken, vegetables or cheese, then steamed or fried. They come with a sharp tomato and chilli chutney and often a cup of clear soup. Every town has its favourite momo shops, usually tiny rooms with steamers stacked by the door.

Thukpa is a Tibetan noodle soup with vegetables and often meat or egg, filling and hot on a cold evening. Related dishes include thenthuk, with hand-pulled flat noodles. Sha phaley, also spelled shaphaley, is a fried bread stuffed with spiced meat, best found in Tibetan cafés in Gangtok, Kalimpong and Darjeeling.

In Gangtok, walk MG Marg and the lanes around Lal Market in the evening and try momos in a side street. In Darjeeling, the Tibetan and Nepali places near Chowrasta and down towards the market serve momos and thukpa at all hours.

Nepali home cooking is the backbone of hill food. A typical meal is dal-bhat: rice, lentils, a seasonal green, a vegetable curry and pickle, often with chicken, pork or egg. What makes it distinctive are the fermented foods that families have made for generations to keep vegetables through the winter.

Gundruk is made from leafy greens such as mustard and radish leaves, fermented and then sun-dried. It is cooked into a sour, savoury soup or a pickle. Sinki is the same idea with radish roots. Kinema is fermented soybean, sticky and strong, cooked with onion and chilli. All three are easy to try in Gangtok, Namchi and village homestays, and hosts are usually happy to explain how they are made.

Sel roti is a ring-shaped bread made from a batter of rice flour, sugar and milk or water, deep-fried until crisp outside and soft inside. It is eaten with tea at breakfast and made in large batches for Dashain and Tihar, when families share it with neighbours. Look for it in the morning at market stalls in Namchi, Kalimpong and Darjeeling.

• Gundruk soup: sour, light and warming, good with rice.
• Sinki and gundruk pickle: sharp side dishes on a thali.
• Kinema curry: strong, for adventurous eaters.
• Aloo dum: spiced potatoes, a common snack with sel roti.

Chhurpi, also written churpi, is the cheese of the high hills. Hard chhurpi is made from yak or cow milk, pressed, cut into small blocks and dried until it is rock hard. You do not bite it; you hold a piece in your cheek and let it soften slowly, sometimes for an hour or more. It is a classic snack for long jeep rides and keeps for months, so it travels home well in its vacuum packs.

Soft chhurpi is fresh, crumbly and mild. It goes into curries, soups and a chilli pickle, and is used much like cottage cheese. In Kalimpong, look also for Kalimpong cheese, a semi-hard cheese made in the town and sold in the bazaar.

Chilli matters here too. Dalle khursani is a small, round, very hot chilli grown in Sikkim and the Darjeeling hills, usually sold as a pickle in oil. A spoonful lifts a plain plate of rice and dal. Take it slowly the first time.

In Gangtok and North Sikkim you meet dishes from the Bhutia and Tibetan kitchens. Phagshapa is pork fat stewed with radish and dried chilli, rich and fiery. Gya thuk is another noodle soup, and butter tea, made with salt and butter, is served in monasteries and village homes. Over Losar, the Tibetan New Year in February or early March, homes serve khapse, fried twisted biscuits, with butter tea and meat dishes.

Chhang is a fermented millet drink, served in the villages and at festivals. In Nepali homes, a similar millet ferment is drunk as tongba from a bamboo vessel topped up with hot water. Both are mild but add up quickly; drink slowly if you are heading to altitude the next day.

In Dzongu, Lepcha homestays cook with local greens, bamboo shoots and produce from their own fields, which is one of the best reasons to stay there.

Darjeeling is first of all a tea town. The first flush is plucked in March and April and gives a light, flowery cup. The second flush, from May, is fuller and more amber, and the autumn flush comes after the monsoon. Gardens near town, such as Happy Valley, about 3 km from Chowrasta, offer walks and tastings for about ₹200–500.

The town also has old cafés from the colonial era. Glenary's on Nehru Road serves pastries and tea, and Keventer's near Chowrasta is known for hot chocolate and breakfasts on its terrace. They are pricier than the momo shops but part of the Darjeeling routine for many visitors.

Markets are the best places to start. Lal Market in Gangtok is the town's old covered market, full of chhurpi, fermented greens, chillies and dried fish. Kalimpong's haat, held on Wednesdays and Saturdays, brings villagers in with vegetables, ginger, cardamom, oranges in season and chhurpi. Siliguri, on the way in or out, has cheap Bengali thalis, rolls and sweets as a contrast to hill food.

Prices in the table are indicative for local restaurants and stalls. Tourist cafés on MG Marg and the Darjeeling Mall charge more.

• Buy hard chhurpi, dalle khursani pickle, Temi tea and large cardamom in Lal Market to take home.
• Ask your homestay a few hours ahead if you would like momos, sel roti or gundruk soup.
• Eat early in the hills; many small restaurants close by 8 or 9 pm.