What local dishes should I try in Bhutan, and where should I look for them?

Two ingredients dominate, and the Department of Tourism's own account of Bhutanese food says so directly. Chillies are essential to nearly every dish, arriving fresh, dried, powdered and pickled, often dried in the open on rooftops before being ground; a standard red chilli paste is made from onion, ginger, red chilli flakes and edible oil. Datshi, the cheese, is in almost everything, to the point that vegetarian dishes are named after it rather than after their vegetable. Red rice is the staple grain, with a nutty, earthy character, and farmers in the western-central regions have grown this heirloom variety for centuries.

Cooking method narrows the menu further. Savoury dishes are boiled, steamed or stewed, and rarely baked, fried or grilled, with most arriving as one-pot mixtures. That is why Bhutanese food looks repetitive at first and then resolves into categories. Paa is the gravy-stew family: shakam paa with beef and phaksha paa with pork, both simmered with dried chillies, radishes and spinach and finished with dried meat and fresh chilli strips. Jasha maroo is a spicy chicken stew with chillies, onions, tomato, coriander leaves and diced chicken. Goep is stir-fried tripe with dried chillies, green onions and small vegetables — a local delicacy the Department of Tourism notes travelers often miss, found in roadside eateries rather than hotels.

Drink follows the altitude. Suja, butter tea, is made from fermented yak butter and yak milk and is the standard warming drink in cold weather, especially in mountainous areas. In local liquor, brewers add 2 or 3 chillies as a good-luck charm rather than for flavour.

Chillies dry in the open on Bhutanese rooftops, so in the weeks after harvest a village seen from the road above it is roofed in red — which is also why ground chilli in Bhutan tastes of sun rather than of smoke.

There are table customs that visitors walk past. The Department of Tourism records that before eating or drinking, people offer a little food, tea or wine into the air as a prayer for blessing, and that morsels are sometimes left on the floor; guests and hosts wait until everyone is served, and hosts typically serve themselves only after guests have begun. Knowing the sequence matters more than knowing the menu, because a Bhutanese meal in a home or a monastery guesthouse runs on it.

• On the road — Ask for goep at a roadside eatery; the Department of Tourism names it as the thing travelers overlook, and it is not hotel food.
• At altitude — Take suja when it is offered; the fermented yak butter and milk are there for cold weather, not for flavour you need to like.
• With dinner — Pair any paa with red rice rather than white; the heirloom grain is the western-central staple and the stews are built for it.

Most of what you eat is pre-arranged. The US Department of State notes that Bhutan's Tourism Council sets a non-negotiable minimum daily tariff covering accommodation, meals, transport and licensed guides and porters, with the same rate applying to cultural tours and treks — so meals are part of a package rather than a series of choices, and asking for goep means asking your guide. On drink, the UK FCDO states that alcohol is legal but that there are limits on how much tourists can buy at one time, and advises asking the vendor what the limit is; tobacco, illegal to sell or buy until 2020, is now legal but smoking is still frowned upon and may cause offence near religious sites.

See the Bhutan places and experiences question in this guide for the regions where these dishes change, and the trip-planning question for how the daily tariff and visa work.