If you find yourself near the Mall between now and June 29 or July 2 through 6 and have a hankering for nakey tshoem or ema datsi, you will be in luck. The Smithsonian Folklife Festival this year honors Bhutan, a small country in the eastern Himalayas between India and China. In addition to watching traditional arts and crafts demonstrations, visiting a Buddhist temple built in the middle of the Mall, and viewing monastic ritual dances, you can sample three traditional Bhutanese dishes. The rice and peppers dish, ema datsi, is traditionally made with yak milk. According to Emily Wax of The Washington Post, the director of Bhutan's department of culture originally planned to bring a yak to the United States for the festival, but gave that up upon learning the animal would have to be quarantined for two months, which "didn't seem like the Buddhist thing to do." They ended up having the food prepared by Indique Heights. No yak milk, I presume.
A friend and I sampled a couple of the dishes yesterday (fortunately for us, before the real heat descended). The ema datsi -- made with rice, cheese, onions, and slivers of jalapeno-like chiles-- was hot hot hot. The nakey tshoem -- chicken with fiddlehead ferns, cheese, chiles, onion, garlic, ginger, and special seasonings (with ginger the most prominent flavor) -- was also hot, but not Africa hot. Both dishes were quite tasty, a bit different from the usual fare, and served very quickly, a rarity at festivals. We did not try the pork and cheese filled dumplings, or momos, though I wish I had for the name alone.
Ms. Wax says that in Bhutan, "blistering-hot chilies are the essential ingredient, probably because they raise body temperatures in the cold Himalayan climate." Raising body temperatures in the blistering heat of the Washington summer might not be as good an idea. Make sure you also get a mango lassi to cool off.
If Bhutanese food doesn't grab you, the festival is also honoring Texas, so you can have everything from Tex-Mex fare like fajitas and quesadillas, to barbecued ribs, to Vietnamese-influenced dishes at the Texas Noodle House (who knew?). Full food listings can be found here, and everything else you need to know to visit the festival here.
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