
Cuisine of Sikkim is a mixture of the food of various cultures. There are various mouth-watering dishes along with other foods in Sikkim. People of Sikkim are rice-eaters. Alcoholic drinks are popular both amongst men and women. Beef eating is common amongst the Bhutias. A typical diet of a working Sikkimese consists of dal bhat i.e. lentils and rice with meat for breakfast; a light lunch of momos and an early dinner consisting of noodles.
Some of the local cuisines which are prevalent in Sikkim can be mentioned as follows.
Momo
Momo is a very popular Tibetan delicacy in Sikkim. Stuffing minced meat, vegetables or cheese in flour dough and then moulding them in the form of dumplings prepare it. After that these are steamed for about half an hour in a three-tiered utensil that has bone or tomato soup in the lowest compartment. Steam from the boiling soup rises through the perforations in the containers above and cooks the dumplings. Momos are taken along with soup and home made chilly sauce. Eight momos which constitute one double are quite filling. It is available in most of the local restaurants as well. Now a day momos are very popular among the youngsters. And this is because of the fact that these are oil free diet and thus prevents to grow fat.
Thukpa
It is noodle soup with vegetables. Thukpa is readily available in most of the local restaurants.
Sael Roti
This Nepali cuisine is prepared by grinding a mixture of rice and water into a paste. The paste is then poured into hot oil and deep fried. It is normally eaten with potato curry. This dish is normally not available in restaurants. But this is widely prepared during parties.
Niguru with Churpi
Niguru is a local fiddlehead fern and its tendrils when light fried with churpi or cheese forms an irresistible dish. The is a household dish and normally prepared in houses. Generally these are not available in restaurants.
Gundruk
Gundruk are leaves of the mustard oil plant that have been allowed to decay for some days and then dried in the sun. These dried leaves are then cooked along with onions and tomatoes and thus forms a tasty dish.
Chang or Thomba
Chang is a local beer which is made by fermenting millet using yeast. It is sipped from a bamboo receptacle using a bamboo pipe. The receptacle which has millet in it is topped with warm water a couple of times until the millet loses its potency. Chang can sometimes be very strong and very intoxicating indeed. This is a favourite drink of many people of Sikkim.
Various traditional fermented foods and beverages constitute the basic diet. Finger millet, wheat, buckwheat, barley, vegetable, potato, soybeans are grown. Noodle-based dishes like chowmein, thanthuk, fakthu, gyathuk and wonton are common delicacies in Sikkim.
(Last Updated on : 15/04/2011)