Being India you’d expect the food in Sikkim to be a fabulous mix of curries and the like, but in actuality the remote mountain features of the place make it much more akin to Tibet grub wise.
That though is not to say it is not without its own unique charms, as well as fine influences from not just Tibet, but also India, Nepal and to a lesser extent Bhutan.
And there’s even a very tiny bit of street food…..
What the Sikkim?
Once its own kingdom, Sikkim only “joined” India in 1975. And even then, it wasn’t exactly a popular vote. Think fairly rigged referendum at the barrel of a gun – you see it really is prime real-estate.
Before that, it had a king, a monarchy, and an actual border with India. It had its own passport, its own stamps, and more personality than most places three times its size.
It’s wedged between Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet and honestly, it feels more like a distant cousin of those places than it does India. Religion wise it’s Buddhist not Hindu. Language wise it’s Nepali and Tibetan rather than Hindi. And food wise, you’re not getting chicken tikka here mate you are getting momo!!!!
The place is clean, organised, quiet, and polite. You’ll see more prayer flags than selfies and the whole thing has the energy of a Buddhist Airbnb that someone forgot to list online. It probably should still be its own country, and if it ever was I’d get a passport. To sum up, this is not the India you expect or get, even next door in Siliguri.
Background to Sikkimese Cuisine
Sikkimese cuisine is basically what you get when you mix mountain survival with grandma-style comfort food. It’s warm, hearty, carb-loaded, and does the job without really worrying as much as you’d like about flavour.. If you’re expecting a fruit bowl and dessert platter, you’ve come to the wrong former country.
The food here is shaped by cold weather, steep hills and a lack of anything tropical. That means a lot of soups, noodles, rice, fermented vegetables, dried meats, and a whole lot of cheese. Not the melty kind either – the chew-for-ten-minutes kind. Churpi Cheese could break a tooth if you’re not careful, but locals snack on it like gum.
The biggest influences come from Tibet and Nepal. You’ve got thukpa noodle soups, gundruk (fermented leafy greens), kinema (fermented soybeans), and the ever-present momo in about 47 different forms. India contributes the spices and occasional masala moment, while Bhutan lends a bit of the spicy and smoky stuff.
The food isn’t diverse, but it works. It keeps you full, warm and weirdly addicted to raw chillies.
10 Foods in Sikkim You Need to Try
Again while Sikkimese food is not going to take over the world any time soon, you will far from go hungry and there are some real gems out there.
Therefore I have put together 10 dishes from Sikkim that are well worth a try. As always we count down from 10-1 — spoiler alert Chilly Momo does rather well……
10. Kinema
Fermented soybeans that smell worse than they taste. Best eaten with plain rice and something spicy to distract you. Funky, earthy, and oddly addictive if you can get past the smell.
9. Phagshapa
Pork belly cooked with dried radish and red chillies. Smoky, fatty, salty and perfect with steamed rice and zero plans afterwards. It’s mountain bacon stew and yes, it’s as good as it sounds.
8. Sel Roti
A circular rice-based doughnut that tastes like a cross between a churro and a pancake. Usually eaten at festivals but sometimes found in random shops. Sweet, oily and completely moreish.
7. Gya Thuk
A Tibetan-style noodle soup with meat, veg and enough garlic to keep vampires away for weeks. Less spicy than thukpa, more comfort food than street snack.
6. Niguru with Churpi
Fiddlehead ferns cooked with rock-hard cheese. Earthy, crunchy and kind of bitter in a good way. It’s not for everyone, but when it works, it works.
5. Wai-Wai
Instant noodles with a cult following. Eaten dry, fried, curried, or turned into soup. Locals treat it like a full-on ingredient not just a quick snack. Surprisingly legit particularly when loaded with hot sauce.
4. Sael Roti with Aloo Dum
When the sweet sel roti gets paired with spicy potato curry you get that sweet-salty combo people lose their minds over. It’s a festival staple and a solid breakfast if you’re feeling brave. Aloo Dum for me was a huge hit.
3. Shyaphaley
Deep-fried meat pies stuffed with beef or pork and cabbage. Crispy outside, juicy inside, and usually served with a killer chilli sauce. Good luck eating just one.
2. Thukpa
The king of mountain soups. Every family does it differently but expect noodles, meat, broth, and some veggie bits. On a cold night, this is basically a hug in a bowl.
Photo: Nirja
1. Chilly Momo
Momo fried or steamed and then drowned in a fiery red chilli sauce that sets your nose running before your tongue even registers the heat. It’s chaos, it’s messy, it’s absolutely brilliant. I could eat this every day and probably did.
Street Food Sikkim
Generally speaking Sikkim is a country of mountainous villages with even smaller towns like Pelling being “homely”. This means that for the most part food is had in the home, or at the few and far restaurants that there. Small villages for example will have zero, or at best one restaurant.
There is also a matter of economics at work there. Sikkim is vastly richer than the rest of India, so people do not need to push a street cart around. And then there is the temperature. Sikkim gets cold, very cold meaning you are more likely to find simple “fast food” AKA momo and chow men serving joints than street ones.
The exception here is the capital of Gangtok, which I have already covered, but again it is far from eclectic. The city though does have a fair array of dining options, such as Nepalese, West Bengali, local and of course Tibetan.
Drinking in Sikkim
Sikkim like other cold neighbors loves a good drink and due to its isolation too has become adept at making its own booze. This includes wine, whisky and ‘barley beer”, like they have in South America too. This shit is not good.
Sikkimese are also pretty good drinkers, although so far at least not as good as The Street Food Guy. Non-alcoholic wise they also have some great juices, cordials, masala tea, and of course the Marmite that is Yak Butter Tea (I love it).
Being next to Darjeeling tea in general is also a mammoth deal. In fact you can even do a tea tasting in Gangtok. It is like a wine tasting, but much, much less fun.
Top 10 drinks to try in Sikkim
We have bucked the trend here by including both alcoholic and nonalcoholic brews, again counting down from 10-1, thus saving the best until last.
10. Barley Beer (Chang)
Looks like porridge, tastes like bitter socks. But you gotta try it once, just for the story.
9. Rhododendron Wine
Yes, they make wine from flowers. It’s sweet, it’s weird, and it goes down a little too easy if you’re not careful.
Photo: Goldhome
8. Tongba
Hot millet beer you sip through a bamboo straw. The more hot water you add, the drunker you get. This is not a drill.
7. Yak Butter Tea
Salty, fatty, and completely Marmite. I love it. Most people don’t. But it’ll keep you warm and full, which is kind of the point.
6. Homemade Fruit Cordials
Made from wild berries or gooseberries and usually mixed with soda or just straight up. Tart and refreshing and occasionally spiked with moonshine if you know the right auntie.
5. Elaichi Chai
Cardamom heavy tea that hits just right when you’ve been walking hills all day. Simple and reliable.
4. Kodo Millet Whiskey
Local firewater that tastes like burnt earth and bad decisions. But again, mandatory mountain drinking experience.
3. Rakshi
A stronger, clearer homemade liquor, usually millet-based. Warm going down, bad in the morning.
2. Darjeeling First Flush
Not technically Sikkimese but everywhere here. Expensive in London, cheap in Gangtok. Drink it like the colonials at a tea tasting!
Photo: Denver Tea Room Online Tea Shop
1. Hit Beer
Locally brewed lager that’s cold, crisp, and better than 90 percent of beers you’ll find in Delhi. The name is dumb. The beer is good.
Conclusion on the food in Sikkim
While not a culinary destination the food in Sikkim is actually really good, particularly compared with its neighbors in Tibet and Bhutan. Nepal not so much, but you cannot have everything.
I personally fell in love with Chilly Momo and even having a spiced cheese omelette at breakfast was a treat. And the boys know how to drink and party, which is OK by me.
This place might not have a Michelin star but it knows exactly what it’s doing. And if you’re cold, tired, and sick of dhal, Sikkimese food is the spicy dumpling-filled hug you didn’t know you needed.