As a crackling wood fire heats the pan in the traditional Bhutanese outdoor kitchen—a two-burner hearth made of clay from the nearby forest—a woman named Namgay Wangmo kneels down and breaks a few eggs into a bowl, adding some salt and a little chili powder. She then carefully pours the mixture through a small strainer, swirling it as she taps it with a wooden stick so that the droplets fry in the sizzling hot oil, slowly forming a fine cluster that is both crispy and fluffy—a dish called jatsa gongdo. “This is one of the most authentic dishes of our community. Jatsa means strainer and gongdo means egg,” explains Mr. Wangchuk, the English-speaking instructor of the cooking class. He adds that in Bhutan, every village has its own recipes.
High atop the hills of Bhutan’s lush Punakha Valley, Nobgang B&B is a women-run community restaurant and farm stay in the remote village of Nobgang. A 40-minute drive from Punakha in western Bhutan, along steep serpentine roads past vast rice terraces and dense jungle-like forests, the clouds give way to an impressive hilltop dotted with a temple and surrounding houses. At the entrance to the restaurant, organic gardens produce subtropical fruits and vegetables, from avocados to tree tomatoes, waiting to be picked. Quaint and quiet as the village of Nobgang may be, it’s known as the birthplace of the four queens of Bhutan—and of the Nobgang B&B, which is set to be a pilot project for the whole country.
“Many houses here are empty. There are 28 households, but not many people live there, so they keep the houses locked,” says Mr. Wangchuk, the manager of Nobgang B&B. “So that’s one of the reasons why we started this restaurant and farm stay, to provide some job opportunities for the youth.” From an outsider’s perspective, Bhutan has it all—a pristine environment, a rich (food) culture, and the famous “Gross National Happiness” index. But even the tiny Himalayan kingdom between China and India has its problems. More and more people are leaving the countryside to move to the cities, or even abroad. To combat the decline of rural communities, where each village has its own customs and traditions, the Nobgang B&B Restaurant opened in 2021 to offer a solution: A restaurant and farm stay run by the villagers themselves—to keep their culture alive through their recipes and way of life, and, in turn, support the local community.
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“If you’re looking for a five-star hotel, this is not it,” says Mr. Wangchuk. “This is how the Bhutanese live.” There’s no Wi-Fi, no TV. Instead, the opportunity to experience the true heart of Bhutanese culture; the “real Bhutan.” Guests come for lunch or dinner at the restaurant, or to stay overnight. But first, there’s always the welcome tea, the suja butter tea, topped with the famous Nobgang zaw, roasted and puffed rice—a staple of this village and a sought-after delicacy in the markets of the capital Thimphu, because it’s fried in butter, not the usual mustard or soybean oil. Then, there’s the chance to take part in the cooking class, which teaches traditional local recipes using organic ingredients from the gardens.
Currently, three women and Mr. Wangchuck run the place, with each woman taking turns in the kitchen for five days. Tenzin Zangmo is one of them. Wearing the traditional Bhutanese kira in bright purple, she says of her working here: “I’ve seen a change in myself. I can see how I’ve improved.” From taking care of her cattle for the most part before, she has now been promoted to head of housekeeping, her favorite thing to do. Her colleague, Namgay Wangm, feels the same way: “I love interacting with the guests.” A group of women from the village joins in: “Before, this building was empty. Now, we’re very happy to come here and eat.” (So do many Bhutanese, from as far away as Thimphu.)
Tourism in Bhutan began only 50 years ago, and the country is keen to keep local traditions and Bhutanese identity alive while at the same time welcoming visitors. Hence the introduction of the daily SDF (Sustainable Development Fee) that people must pay, as the country wants to ensure that the population benefits from tourism—meaning homestays or farm stays are an important part of the experience here.
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Nobgang B&B is supported by both the Department of Culture in Bhutan and the World Bank. The initiative is also backed by one of the Queen Mothers of Bhutan, Her Majesty Gyalyum Tshering Yangdon Wangchuck. Everything they earn from the restaurant and the farm stay goes back into the community. “First, it goes back to the workers who are involved here in the form of wages,” says Mr. Wangchuk. “And then we have agreed to deposit 30% in an account. We’re trying to get a representative from our restaurant side, from the monastery side, and from the community. This is what we call a ‘community stewardship program.’” The money is then used on a case-by-case basis, such as when work needs to be done at the temple or the road needs to be repaired. However, before such a fund can be established, there needs to be a new category for this type of farm stay, which the Department of Tourism is still in the process of deciding. With Nobgang B&B as a pioneer, more community projects should follow. Mr. Wangchuck describes it as “a three-star hotel, but with a traditional structure.”
This is because the history of the restaurant and farmhouse is equally fascinating: Dating back more than 100 years, the building has historical significance and is therefore preserved by the Department of Culture. Its unique L-shaped structure is considered typical of local architecture in this area, while in the rest of Bhutan, the buildings are equally elaborate, with wooden carvings and colorful drawings, but rectangular or square. This is due to the fact that a hermit once lived here. During his life of meditation, he wasn’t even allowed to see his assistant, so the rooms were kept separate. But when they both grew old, they needed family nearby to support them, so an additional structure was added, resulting in the L-shape of the house. After the hermit’s death, the farmhouse then served various community purposes, from a teacher’s cottage to a meeting hall, but had been neglected until recently, when the Queen Mother helped the community acquire ownership and renovate it.
The goal was to keep the rooms simple and authentic, with no extra glass in the windows or fancy furniture. Lunch is served upstairs. “We call the room kabuna. If I asked the staff to bring some tea to the kabuna, they would go straight to that room. But if I asked him [pointing to another Bhutanese], he wouldn’t know because he s not from this village. The whole building is called Kabu-Darcham, Darcham means ‘branch’ in our local language, a new branch of the old house.”
For lunch, guests gather around a low table filled with delicious-looking dishes from authentic recipes in decorated wooden bowls, with a large bowl of tan tshering, local Punakha rice, in the center, sitting cross-legged on the floor, some eating with their hands, as is customary in Bhutan. There’s the delicate jatsa gongdo egg dish from earlier, but also ema datshi, Bhutan’s national dish, a spicy chili cheese stew. Chili is so popular in Bhutan that it’s considered a vegetable, but again, recipes vary from village to village, so in Nobgang, it’s made with homemade cottage cheese, local Punakha green chilies, oil, and salt—and no added garlic or onion.
Then, there’s gegew, a mix of slow-cooked pork and beef cutlets, along with some shukam, dried white chilies, and vermicelli noodles. Last but not least, ezay nyergum, the traditional chili paste. Ezay is ubiquitous in every part of Bhutan, a beloved condiment that goes with everything. But in Nobgang, it’s a unique recipe made from nine specific ingredients, including fish mint. “In the old days, this was considered a royal delicacy and the process behind it is very complicated. It takes a lot of time and resources,” says Mr. Wangchuck. People from all over Bhutan order it from here to send to relatives in other countries, from Canada to Australia.
Today, more and more Bhutanese buy their chili paste directly from supermarkets, and traditional recipes are at risk of being forgotten. “If people would make it at home and show it to their children, this culture could be passed on,” says Mr. Wangchuck. That’s why Nobgang B&B also offers cooking classes. “We try to involve the youth. And also teach them. That’s the reason why we don t hide our recipes. We don t want them to disappear, we want them to spread.” Nobgang’s traditional recipes and cuisine have even attracted the interest of luxury hotels around Bhutan, with chefs coming here to learn about these specific dishes. “We allow them to take classes, we teach them, but we also tell them: ‘Just give them the name of Nobgang in your restaurant, so everyone knows this is a dish from our village.’”