Ema Datshi
EH-mah DAT-shee — 'Ema' means chili and 'datshi' means cheese in Dzongkha — literally, chili cheese.
₹260
A dish where chilies are the vegetable, not the seasoning — and one of India's most-searched recipes after a Bollywood star's public love for it.
Ema datshi is considered Bhutan's national dish, built around the fact that Bhutanese cooking treats chilies as a vegetable in their own right rather than a background spice. It stayed a fairly niche curiosity outside Bhutan until actress Deepika Padukone spoke publicly about her love for the dish, which sent Indian search interest for the recipe climbing well beyond what a niche Himalayan specialty usually sees.
What makes it taste like that
The chilies are cooked whole or in thick slices, not minced, so their heat comes through in full, direct bursts rather than an even background burn. Farmhouse cheese, melted slowly into the chili-tomato base, cools and rounds out each bite just enough to keep going back for more.
Chef's note
Don't seed the chilies and don't skimp on them — the dish is meant to be genuinely, unapologetically hot.