The Taste of Travel: Himalayan kitchens

High-altitude cooking is built around warmth and energy. Across Ladakh, Spiti, Sikkim and Nepal, the dishes travellers meet most often are soups, dumplings and tea, and many have their roots in Tibetan food traditions as well as in local ones.

Thukpa is a noodle soup, usually with vegetables or meat, which came to the Himalayan regions of India and Nepal from Tibetan cooking. Momos, steamed or fried dumplings, are the best-known snack, and in Nepal and Sikkim they are tied to both Tibetan and Newar traditions. In Ladakh, look for skyu, a stew of hand-pinched wheat pasta with vegetables and sometimes meat, and for butter tea, called gur gur cha, a salty drink of tea, butter and salt that helps in the cold and dry air.

In the villages, barley is central. Roasted barley flour, known as tsampa or ngamphe, is eaten mixed with tea or butter and is a staple for herders and trekkers. In Sikkim, fermented foods and the millet beer tongba are part of home cooking.

A word on travel: at altitude, appetite can drop, and some visitors feel mildly unwell on arrival. Eat small, warm meals, drink plenty of water, and be careful with alcohol. Vegetarian food is easy to find in most areas, but ask what stock a soup is made with.