AN ELGIN EXCLUSIVE FEATURE
Food is one of the main reasons to travel and nothing can connect one to a place better than the food. Darjeeling’s local food and drinks will touch your soul like no other. While its food is mostly an assortment from different cultures of the people who live there, it actually makes it more awesome to see the combination of different styles and tastes on a plate or mostly in a bowl.
On a food trail in Darjeeling
Image by Darjeeling Tourism
This is an assortment of Darjeeling food- warm thukpa, steamed and fried momos.
The dishes mostly contain rice, noodles, potatoes and meat which perfectly compliments the climate. Very little spice and oil take place in the menu and they make do with the flavours mostly using natural ingredients and not much dried. And the side dish spicy chutneys that are mostly served with momos are to die for.
Image from pinterest
This is a noodle soup made with rice noodles, an assortment of veggies and meat which is cooked slowly to take the most of the flavours from the ingredients. One of the most loved dishes in the area preferred by both locals and the tourists.
The top tier dishes that have taken over everyone’s heart and menus in the restaurants are momo, thukpa (noodle soup), alu dum, dalle (pickle), Churpee (a type of cheese), Bengali thali, sael roti (round sweet rice bread) and Gundruk (fermented leafy vegetables), and you know what, one can just go on. From the list you can see how diverse their plate is. This place became a merger of Bengali , Nepali, Lepchas and few others who migrated to the place at different times, whose wonderful diversity can be seen in the food available there.
Image from Pinterest
This is a complete Nepali Newari Thali that consists of flattened rice and numerous delicious dishes. It is a beautiful combination of meat, vegetables and pickled items.
Visit to Darjeeling caanot be complete without trying its tea. Darjeeling tea is know for its musky flavour which also brings in fuity like aroma and flavour on its second flush. It is unique for it can be processed into different types such as black, green, white, or oolong tea. The place also has acquired hints of British food and dishes like porridge, pancakes with fruits, brown bread sandwiches, hash brown potatoes, fried eggs with roasted tomatoes, brown toasts are famously found in the beautiful, tiny cafes that have soothing music playing all the time and few cafes like Glenary’s is known for whipping up some mean coffee.
These dishes can be found around Darjeeling but restaurants and cafes found in places such as Gandhi Road that hoasts the Lunar Restaurant, Sonam’s Kitchen and Kunga Restaurant, Nehru Road with Keventer’s, SM Das Road with Beny’s cafe and Hasty Tasty amongst many others have been the talk of the town. So, one can take it as the starting point and then navigate the rest accordingly. The place offers food that has the taste of home-cooked feel to it for which during peak season, there are long queues outside these famous joints, so be there early.
