Mel
The Taste That Takes Me Back to Bhutan
In This Article
Sometimes, a dish you discovered while traveling comes back to you years later.
Out of nowhere, you remember it and think, “I’d love to eat that again.”
For me, that dish is Ema Datshi from Bhutan.
Ema means chili.
Datshi means cheese.
So, essentially, it is chili cooked with cheese.
The chili is the main vegetable, and it is incredibly spicy. In Bhutan, it appears on the table regularly and is often eaten with rice.
According to people I met there, for those living at high altitude and doing physically demanding work such as farming, that intense heat helps stimulate the appetite and has long been an important part of everyday life.
The sharp heat of the chili is softened, just a little, by the richness of the cheese.
But for someone who is not used to it, it is still hot enough to make you feel like you could breathe fire.
For me, one tiny bite was enough to get through an entire bowl of rice.
Or rather, that was the only way I could calm the heat down.
So this was not one of those dishes I discovered on a trip and loved so much that I could not stop eating it.
It was not something I devoured until I was completely full.
In fact, I could only eat a little each time.
And yet, somehow, even now, years later, I still think about Ema Datshi.
Sometimes I suddenly crave it.
Maybe it is because, along with that taste, I also remember everyone’s smiles.
Maybe what I really miss is seeing those smiles again.
Only Five Days Off
At that time in my life, I was working almost constantly.
From early morning until late at night.
I was so busy that there were days when I barely had time to eat properly.
I was completely absorbed in work.
It was rewarding, and I carried a great deal of responsibility.
Looking back, I think I was simply pushing forward every day without stopping.
My boss eventually noticed and told me I should finally use some of the paid leave I had never taken.
But there was one condition.
I could take five days at most.
Five days was not enough to go very far.
So I wondered where I should go.
Then one day, I happened to see something on television.
“Bhutan, the Land of Happiness.”
I knew almost nothing about the country.
I did not know what it was famous for.
I did not know what there was to see.
But the moment I saw that peaceful Buddhist country surrounded by mountains, I was completely drawn in.
I wanted to meet the people who lived there.
That was all.
I booked the trip almost immediately.
At 4 A.M., I Was Still at the Office
On the day I was supposed to leave for Bhutan, I needed to be at the airport by the afternoon.
At 4 a.m., I was still at the office.
There had been a small problem at work, and I was trying to deal with it.
My suitcase was still completely empty.
At that point, I started to accept that maybe I would not make it to Bhutan after all.
Then my boss called.
“What are you doing? You’re on vacation from today, aren’t you? Just go. It’s fine. Go.”
That was all I needed.
I finished what I could as quickly as possible, went home, took a shower, threw only the bare essentials into my suitcase, slept for one hour, and rushed to the airport.
I changed planes at Don Mueang Airport in Thailand.
From a tiny gate at the very edge of the huge airport, I boarded a small aircraft.
A dragon, the symbol of Drukair, was painted on the tail.
By then, I did not care about the lack of sleep at all.
I was simply, quietly excited.
The plane stopped in Nepal along the way and picked up several Buddhist monks.
Then we finally continued toward Bhutan.
As we began to approach the country, snow-covered mountains appeared outside the window.
The Himalayas.
The sight was almost mystical.
We had not even landed yet, but I already knew that this was going to be a good journey.
The Dish That Was Always There
Ema Datshi appeared at almost every meal.
Because I had decided to visit Bhutan so suddenly, I had not even researched what Bhutanese food was like.
At my first meal, I reached for the Ema Datshi without hesitation.
Then I took one bite.
And suffered.
It was unbelievably spicy.
A staff member who had brought the food noticed my reaction and came over looking concerned.
“This is chili cooked with cheese, so it’s spicy.”
Then, smiling, they added,
“We Bhutanese are so used to it that we don’t even think it’s spicy anymore.”
I still remember that smile.
After that, at every meal, I stubbornly kept trying a little bit of Ema Datshi.
It seemed to appear everywhere.
Whenever I told someone,
“This is so spicy. But I like it!”
they would smile back.
And when they saw that, despite claiming to like it, I could only manage one tiny bite, they would laugh again.
Every time I ate Ema Datshi, I ended up laughing with someone.
Before I knew it, the smiles surrounding the dish had become more memorable than the dish itself.
I Did Not Need Anything Else
My trip to Bhutan was genuinely cleansing.
The majestic mountains.
The quiet Buddhist temples.
Everything felt solemn, sacred, and almost impossible to describe properly.
People in traditional clothing were warm, approachable, and incredibly kind.
There were no futuristic towers overlooking Thimphu.
No cutting-edge trendy districts I needed to check off a list.
But I did not need any of that.
Simply walking beside a river was enough.
Looking at the mountains was enough.
It was a beautiful country.
During the trip, I cried several times.
Not because I was sad.
It felt as though everything unnecessary and heavy that had been sitting inside me for so long was slowly melting away.
Work.
Responsibility.
The constant thought of what I needed to do next.
All the things that had occupied my mind every day began to feel farther away.
And eventually, I realized I was simply looking at the mountains, the river, and the faces of the people around me.
That was enough.
The Places a Taste Can Take You Back To
Travel memories are strange.
You do not remember everything clearly forever.
The exact order of the places you visited.
The conversations you had.
The small details slowly begin to fade.
But sometimes, a smell or a taste can bring everything back all at once.
The heat.
The smell of cheese.
The steam rising from the food.
The feeling around the table.
And the smiling faces on the other side of it.
Perhaps we remember travel through our senses.
That may be why one taste can suddenly bring an entire country back into your mind.
And strangely, the last thing that often returns is someone’s face.
For me, Ema Datshi has become a symbol of the warmth and kindness I found in Bhutan.
As an outsider, I could only manage a tiny bite.
But it was always there.
And every time it appeared, someone was smiling.
Even now, I sometimes crave it for no reason.
Maybe I do not really want to eat Ema Datshi.
Maybe I just want to go back to that journey one more time.
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