A Festival Meal

I was invited by the ICU nursing staff to attend a festival meal on Friday the 9th of December. Since our communication was a little inexact, I thought I was being invited to someone's home, kinda like a standard dinner at someone's house. I went to a bakery, got a bunch of sweets, and dutifully tagged along. We went in a caravan of two cars, and stopped along the way to buy gifts for the hosts:  a couple of cases of beer, and a case of milk, and well as about 4 dozen eggs.

We drove out into the countryside and stopped on the road. There was a footpath down to several old houses, and we had to walk through (dry) terraced rice fields, walking along the dikes. At the house, we went up the stairs and sat on a carpeted floor. We were served hot butter tea, sweet rice with cashews, flat bread, and arra (no, not the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act), a kind of fortified rice wine that I must say was awful.

As we ate, little kids ran in and out of the room. The hosts did not eat with us (this is the custom) but repeatedly entered to look after our well being. We were served a couple of different kinds of thick soups, and then went for the meal. All of the food was eaten with fingers, including the soups-- pick out the pieces and drink the liquid from the bowl.

The meal consisted of Bhutanese red rice, chilies cooked as a vegetable and served with a thin cheese sauce, potatoes, spicy beef, spicy vegetables, more drinks. There was also a piece of cooked pork fat with a wisp of meat attached. All of it was quite tasty. My host looked at me in horror at one point, and quickly ran out to get me a spoon and fork. Believe me, I was grateful.

As a rest in the middle of the meal, we were served doma.  This is a piece of betel nut wrapped in a special leaf and a dab of chemical lime. The mixture is chewed, and is similar in effect, I am told, to smoking. Offered some, I took a dab of lime, put it in the leaf, dropped in a hunk of betel nut, and started chewing. In about three minutes I was wet from sweat, red, and feeling silly. It lasted all of 5 minutes. Once is enough.

When the meal was done, it was dark out. We left my sweets and the staples for the family, and in turn we were each given a gift of bread and rice. As we walked out,  I realized that the kitchen was in an outbuilding. We threaded our way back up the rice fields to the car by flashlight (torch in Bhutan), and drove home. Altogether a pretty amazing experience. No pictures, to have started clicking away would have spoiled the ambiance of the moment.

Next:  Road trip!!