What to Eat in Darjeeling Today?

Momos and thukpa

Momos are everywhere, from Tibetan cafés to handcarts on Chowrasta. They come steamed or fried, filled with pork, chicken, buffalo or vegetables, with a hot tomato-and-chilli sauce and often a cup of clear soup. Thukpa is the noodle soup you want after a wet afternoon. It is a big bowl of broth with vegetables or meat, sometimes topped with an egg. Kunga on Gandhi Road is the best-known place for both.

Aloo dum and puri

Hill aloo dum is not the Bengali version. It is a spicy, sour potato dish, often coloured red with chilli, and is eaten with puri for breakfast or from street stalls as a snack. Get it early, before the morning batch runs out.

Sel roti

Sel roti is a ring of fried rice-flour batter, crisp outside and soft inside, lightly sweet. Families make it for Dashain and Tihar, and at other times you find it at bakeries and small tea shops.

The tea

Darjeeling tea is grown only in these hills and carries a GI tag. The first flush, picked roughly March to May, is light and flowery. The second flush, from about late May, has the muscat-like taste the region is known for. Drink it plain, without milk or sugar. Sit down for a pot at Glenary's, or taste a few types at the Happy Valley Tea Estate. Local families drink milky, sugary tea too, so ask for "plain" or "black" if that is what you want.

Other things to look for

Churpi is a hard yak or cow's-milk cheese you chew slowly for an hour. Gundruk is fermented leafy greens, often in soup. Tongba is warm millet beer sipped through a bamboo straw. These are harder to find on tourist menus, so ask in small local eateries.

For places to sit down, see where to eat in Darjeeling.