Travel to find local, lesser-known food cultures

Crunchy and crumbly, with a hint of a low heat—tsong thaltak, a whole-wheat onion biscuit bread topped with poppy seeds that tastes like mathri but crumbles like an oatmeal cookie—is hardly what I imagined Ladakhi food to be.

- Smitha Menon

Crunchy and crumbly, with a hint of a low heat—tsong thaltak, a whole-wheat onion biscuit bread topped with poppy seeds that tastes like mathri but crumbles like an oatmeal cookie—is hardly what I imagined Ladakhi food to be. A few years ago, when I travelled to Ladakh on work, I was gobsmacked by the sheer variety of baked goods that dotted the cuisine.

From Kunzes Angmo, who runs a culinary experience in Leh called Artisanal Alchemy, I learnt that tsong thaltak is traditionally baked in flat iron containers and buried in dry leaves that cook it overnight. It’s just one example of the rich culinary heritage passed down along the Silk Route via traders, scholars and travellers. Ladakhi cuisine is often lumped with other Himalayan food clichés as being a cuisine of soups and noodles, but this trip revealed just how rich and complex the food of the region is. No AI-generated itinerary could’ve told me that.

There’s no doubt that food plays a pivotal role in shaping our travel experiences, influencing where we go and how we spend our time when we arrive. Initially, we expected the internet to deepen our appreciation for diverse culinary cultures. However, with the surge of food recommendations on platforms like Instagram, there’s a trend toward a more homogenous dining experience.

As popular dishes and trendy locations dominate social media feeds, the unique flavours and local traditions that once defined our culinary explorations risk becoming diluted and stripped of meaning. Blame it on my algorithm but it feels like everyone is eating at the same places and using the same recipes.