How to Make Homemade Ladakhi Thukpa

One of the things we did while in Ladakh was stay in a traditional farm house. You can read more about our experience here but one of the many things I learnt while living with this wonderful family was to make Ladakhi thukpa. Most, if not all, of the ingredients used were grown in the family farm, right in front of the house. Water used for the thukpa broth came from the river that flows right through the house compoundand the dehydrated paneer was made from milk that came from their own cow. It will be hard to top Tundup's thukpa since my ingredients will never be as fresh but I'll be sure to try!

Cooking in Tundup's kitchen.


Ingredients from Tundup's farm

Ingredients

For the broth
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
4 medium radishes, chopped
1/2 cup spinach, blanched
3 small onions, chopped
5 big garlic cloves, chopped
4 sprigs of spring onion, chopped
1/2 cup cilantro
1 tablespoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoons cumin powder
1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1 teaspoon turmeric
4 tablespoon mustard oil
Salt to taste

For the Noodles
1 eggs for noodles
3 cups atta
About 1 cup water

Preparation
In a heavy skillet, heat mustard oil until hot and add onions and garlic and fry until fragrant. Stir in tomatoes and cook for a couple of minutes then add all the masala powders and pepper. Add spinach and radish and cook well for 10 about minutes. When radish is soft and spices are fragrant, add about 4 to 5 cups of water and bring to boil. Lower heat and let it cook while you make the noodles. Add chopped spring onions and cilantro right before serving.

Making thukpa noodles
On a big bowl, mix flour with egg and add a a few tablespoons of water at a time while kneading mixture into a dough. When thoroughly mixed, roll out dough like a chappati and then slice the flattened dough into long strips. Slowly add dough strips into boiling broth and cook covered at medium heat for about 20 minutes. Add salt to taste, or do what the locals do which is omitting the salt altogether and taste the natural sweetness of each and every ingredient used to make this delicious dish.

Dehydrated paneer

Making noodles

Cooking noodles in thukpa broth

My very first bowl of homemade Ladakhi thukpa

Il Forno

Il Forno is worth trying only if you are craving for pizzas. In our case, "A" was a bit tired of Ladakhi food and was yearning for a slice. They serve decent pizzas but I won't recommend anything else...


Pizzas and tandooris are made in this oven.


Thin crust pizza and reasonably tasty marinara sauce with some good melted cheese.


Lasagna - A bit mushy, kinda like eating cheese soup.


Rooftop seating. Service is extremely slow, but you can literally see the whole town go by from up here.

Overall Ratings:
Po's: 7/10

Would we return?
Only if "A" is craving for pizzas.

Address:
Zangsti Road

Amdo Cafe

A local jewelry shop owner recommended this restaurant. The menu has a wide variety of Tibetan food but we stuck with the "safest" dishes (probably because it wasn't me who did the ordering). The food can be quite spicy and by now (4th day in Ladakh), my mouth is starting to develop tiny blisters from the dehydration and energy deficiency, so it became painful and annoying to eat spicy food.


Mutton thukpa - this is a slightly different variation. Instead of long noodles, these are bite-size noodle pieces.


Phing sha, eaten with tingmo (below).


Tingmos - steamed buns, texture and tastes very similar to the Chinese baos.


Mutton momos.


I think this fried-noodle dish is called Thantuk.

Overall Ratings:
Po's: 8/10

Would we return?
Yes.

Address:
On Main Bazar Road. It's not hard to find even though it doesn't really have an address. Just ask around, I'm sure a friendly local will tell you how to get here.

Leh View

Kashmiri food is popular in Ladakh for the obvious reasons - Ladakh is in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Apart from Kashmiri food, Leh View restaurant, like all other restaurants in Leh, also serves Chinese, Israeli and European food. The hygiene of this place is questionable but the service is friendly and the view is beautiful.

Kashmiri crispy chicken.


Freshly baked tandoor rotis.

Yakhnee mutton - the flavor is very mild but the meat is cooked to perfection.


Kashmiri dum aloo - so different from the dum aloo we eat in South India. It has a nutty flavor and the potatoes literally melts, you'd think you're just eating gravy.

Dahl fry - so yummy, we did a re-order.


Mutton roganjosh - the meat is so tender and soft. Highly recommended!

And here are the views...

Rooftop seating area.


View of Leh town from the restaurant.


Sunset shot - see how the moon and star aligns? Pretty nice, huh?

Overall Ratings:
Po's: 8/10
"A": 7/10

Would we return?
Yes.

Address:

Main Bazar - it's about 2 doors from the ATM machines (there are only 2 in town). You can't miss it.

Bon Appétit

You can meet the most random people in Ladakh. All you need to do is smile and start talking to strangers. While camping at beautiful Pangong Tso, we met a couple of people who work at the Indian NDTV food show Highway on My Plate.

What a great recommendation it was! We LOVED this place so much, we came here three times in the 14 days we were in Ladakh and even made friends with the owners. This place is unlike any other restaurants in Leh. Bon Appétit literally took the Leh gastronomical scene up 15 notches. Sure the service was extremely slow, but in Ladakh, there is really no rush to do anything or go anywhere.


Jungle tea - cinnamon "tea" with rum, served warm and yummy. We also ordered mojitos, which is made from spearmints grown from their own kitchen garden.


Trio dips - baba ganoush, cucumber dip and humus.


Lamb skewers with cucumber dips - one is spicy the other one is sweet. Apparently, the guy from Highway on My Plate liked the sweet dip so much he ordered a whole bowl and finished it.


Moroccan chicken breast - Chicken breast marinated in cinnamon and cloves. I have to say, it wasn't the most popular dish on the table.


Aubergine parmesan - crispy aubergine sticks served with yummy tomato sauce.


Chicken momos - a slightly modified version of the traditional one. Served with spicy tomato sauce.


Mutton shapta and tingmo - stir-fry slices of mutton served with steamed buns.


Chocolate momos - I know, it sounded weird to us too at first but it works! Deep fried "dumplings" stuffed with chocolates and served with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. It was yum!


Bon Appétit uses (or tries to use) ingredients grown in from their kitchen garden.


Outdoor seating area.

The indoor seating area. They hired a Swiss architect who was obviously very familiar with Ladakhi aesthetics. The building, floors and furniture are made of local stones, mud and wood.

This is what we had when we came back from brunch.


Paneer vegetable sandwich - "A": ...in fact, I like the brunch menu even more than I do the dinner menu.


Mutton sandwich - served with caramelized onions.

Overall Ratings:
Po's: 9.5/10
"A": 9/10

Would we return?
Definitely!

Address:
Changspa La

Tibetan Kitchen

With this post, I'm officially expanding this blog to the rest of India :-)

I was in Ladakh last month and I can't begin to tell you how it has changed my life. It's gotta to be one of the most beautiful places on earth and as much as I want to keep the place (and food) to myself and hope it'll always stay remote from the rest of the world, it's unrealistic. It's changing as I'm blogging this post.

Ladakhi food is very, very similar to Tibetan food. It's cuisine is most of the time wholesome, simple and can be quite repetitive. Here's a restaurant that I found on the Lonely Planet. Tibetan Kitchen has a nice outdoor seating area. Overall food was yummy except the service is super slow. We waited thirty minutes for our momos.


Lamb momos - minced lamb in dumplings. Nicely seasoned and moist.


Chicken momos


Sha bakleh - bread stuffed with meat. Same filling used for the momos except these are baked and tastes a lot like meat pies.


Lamb chilly-fry. Stir-fry chicken or lamb with capsicum and onions and seasoned with a spicy soy-like sauce.


Ginger, lemon, honey drink. Served warm and is so good for the dry throat and sniffles. I think we had this at least twice a day.

There was a "steamboat" or "hotpot" that they served but you have to order it the morning of the day you are coming for dinner. It would've been perfect for the chilly Ladakhi nights.

Overall Ratings:
Po's: 7.5/10
"A": 8/10

Would we return?
Probably.

Address:
Hotel Tso-Kar
Fort Road