On this leg of our Ladakh food tour, we began our food journey from Gurudwara Pathar Sahib where we paid our respect and had langar prasad. Then headed to Alchi village. Our destinations here were the oldest Alchi Monastery and the cozy Alchi Kitchen run by restaurateur and chef Nilza Wangmo. Alchi kitchen is an all-women-run Ladakhi restaurant that is a hit with tourists. Nilza and her team have been doing a phenomenal job of presenting Ladakhi flavors to visitors from different parts of the world.
Nilza Wangmo, recipient of the highest civilian honor for women in India - Nari Shakti Puraskar, has been promoting Ladakhi cuisine at her restaurant and on her many travels across India. At the restaurant, you will find popular Ladakhi dishes including khambir and paba, bow-tie pasta skew, chutage, thukpa, and tangtur.
When we arrived, it was a packed house and everyone in the kitchen was super busy. When we returned post-lunch, we could get some time to spend with Nilza. She started by preparing chhanthuk, a winter soup made of soaked barley and wheat grains. As the grains, legumes, and churpi simmered away on the stone vessel over a traditional clay oven, she served us chicken khambir. These succulent chicken-stuffed Ladakhi flatbread pockets were brilliant. Next, we had mutton gyathuk, a Tibetan-style noodle soup with tender mutton chunks.
Continuing with the tasting of the best of Ladakhi delicacies at the place dedicated to it, we then had the veg version of Yarkandi pulao. This is a butter-laden pulao that has fried onions, a few veggies, and onions in it.
Finally, we joined Nilza in the kitchen to complete the preparation of chhanthuk. The meat pieces were already added to it. For the last part, she basically uses a small quantity of apricot kernel oil cake, but since it was not available, she just gave a tempering of some whole spices in apricot oil.
The result was a robust yet flavorful gruel. We tried it with plain khambir. For dessert, we had kushu phemar, or a no-cooking sweet dish made of dried apple flour, barley flour, butter tea, and butter. All these were combined together to form a soft lump. The taste was simple yet phenomenal.
Throughout the meal, Nilza enlightened us with great details of Ladakhi cuisine, and it was truly a privilege to learn so much about the Ladakhi cuisine from here.
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Text by Swetaleena Nayak