Must Try

While you are in the region, you must try the local food

localfood          The diversity of Sikkimese plant life and its inhabitants come together to make for a unique cuisine. Tibetan infleunce has left an indelible mark on the culinary lanscape, with dishes ranging from steaming-hot noodle soups known as thenthuk or thukpa, filled with vegetables or meat as desired, to world-famous steamed dumplings, or momos. Locally-made cheese known as churpi, sold soft in fresh leaf packets or dried in hard chunks, is worth tracking down in the markets. For the adventurous, make sure to ask your guide or hotel staff where you can eat gundruk (preserved spinac greens), sisnu (stinging nettle soup), and tama (bamboo shoots), three healthy local foodstuffs which traditionally kept hill farmers warm and fit during the long winters. You may want to finish you meal with a round of local homebrew, such as chang (local beer made of fermented rice), thungba (hot water poured over fermented millet) or raksi (distilled grain alcohol).