It is football season in Bhutan. To clarify, it is football as in the ‘world game’ soccer. This weekend, the King’s Cup was concluded at Changlimithang in Thimphu with Nepali team Manang Marsyangdi edging out local team Yeedzin for the winner's trophy.
It is curious to me as to why football season coincides with
monsoon – there can only be one outcome – mud! I’ll be frank with you, although
I played soccer in high school, I was more of a liability to my team than an
asset, so I recommend you read Matt’s
(fellow Aussie BCF teacher) blog if you want to get the lowdown on football in Bhutan. Football in Bhutan seems to predominantly be a men’s game while women take a supporting role, so if you choose to read further you’ll find out more about what we ate than how many goals were scored by which team!
(fellow Aussie BCF teacher) blog if you want to get the lowdown on football in Bhutan. Football in Bhutan seems to predominantly be a men’s game while women take a supporting role, so if you choose to read further you’ll find out more about what we ate than how many goals were scored by which team!
Chumey MSS is hosting the regional Monsoon Football
tournament for the next three weeks, and Saturday afternoon was the first kick-off.
As soon as Saturday morning lessons finished, I joined the other ladies in one
of the science labs to help cook up a storm. The snacks we made are to sell to
the audience and participants and raise money. The school has embarked upon an
ambitious project of building 12 religious statues for the school hall with an
estimated cost of about $14000. That is an enormous amount of money anywhere in
the world, and it is eye-opening to say the least that the priority of the
school is to fund statues while I see so much educational need, but in Bhutan
obviously priorities are vastly different. So I wonder how far the proceeds of
all the snacks we’re making will go?
If you know me, you know I love cooking and food, and so I
really relished the opportunity to get involved in learning to cook all the
Bhutanese favourite snacks. On the menu were: chilli chop (battered deep fried chillies), aloo chop (mashed spiced potato battered and fried), vegetable momos (steamed vegetable
dumplings) finger chips (deep fried
coloured ‘noodles’ that are crispy and moorish, a bit like prawn crackers) and ezay (chilli salsa). And no social
function in Bhutan would be without doma
(betel nut)!
 |
| Finger chips. |
My first role was to help with packaging up the doma. Doma
is a curiosity to me – I’m not interested to try it as you end up with a mouth
of crushed betel nut and dripping with red saliva, and yet it must have a
strong appeal as most adults here chew doma throughout the day (even while
teaching!) and even children take it too they tell me!
 |
| Preparing the doma - chopping the nuts. |
So we rolled four leaves smeared with lime paste with four
pieces of betel nut in a piece of recycled note paper (watch out students – if you
leave your note books lying around they will be put to good use!). They sell
for 10 ngultrums (20c) and as part of social life here, everyone seems to have
a little packet of doma hidden in their kira or gho, ready to share around.
Next I joined the momo making production line. Already one
of the teacher’s husbands had come in to lend his elbow grease to the task of
mixing and kneading the dough. I was told the dough is just plain flour and
water, and it was kneaded to a soft, pliable consistency and left to rest while
the filling was prepared.
 |
Making the momo filling.   |
 |
| Ready to steam. |
The filling was made from chopped cabbage, onion, ginger,
salt and ‘tasting powder’ which I found out was MSG. Some mashed potato was
added and then quite a lot of vegetable oil which created a very wet mix.
Earlier this week I watched the lady in our ‘aloo chop shop’ make momos and she
added garlic, coriander and processed cheese to her mix. The mix was stirred
carefully by hand until all the ingredients were amalgamated.
Miss Rajini showed me once how she folds momos and that was
my initiation into the big new world of momo making! It is true that I dabbled
in momo making at home for our goodbye party, and Miss Rajini’s style was
similar to what I learned watching youtube, so I was on my way!
The dough was so soft and supple to use, and rolled
relatively thickly too, not wafer thin like the gowgee wrappers I had used to
make momos at home which are quite hard from refrigeration. I’d say it was 100
times easier to make momos with the home made dough as they were larger, softer
and thicker. Well worth the effort to make. It was fascinating to see that all
the women who folded momos had a different technique, and their momos ended up
looking quite different. Some were crescent shape, some pleated on the top to
make an oval shape.
It’s a funny thing to sit cross legged on the floor, dressed
in a fine kira to get into the messy work of cooking, but I really enjoyed
myself! Conversation flowed around me in Dzongkha. If I tuned in I could understand
some of what was said and I pounced on any English word in a sentence to make
meaning.
As a group of about six of us made momos – three rolling the dough and cutting it into circles and three filling them, another group of hard workers were onto the task of making chilli chop.
 |
| A very friendly, communal way of cooking. |
As a group of about six of us made momos – three rolling the dough and cutting it into circles and three filling them, another group of hard workers were onto the task of making chilli chop.
These are a favourite snack food here and cost 10 ngultrums
(20c) for three. Half a large chilli, which is medium hot, is dipped in a
batter made from mostly besan (chickpea) flour mixed with some plain flour,
baking powder, salt and water. It is then dropped in hot oil and deep fried til
golden brown and a bit puffy. The ladies had a large bucket of chillies and it
took them literally hours to batter and fry them all.
 |
The makings of chilli chop. |
Meanwhile another group were working on aloo chop. An enormous pot of unpeeled potatoes were
boiled til well cooked and then when cooled somewhat their skins were peeled
off. These were mashed and red chilli powder added along with salt, chopped
onions and that magical ‘tasting powder’. I was told that chopped coriander
leaves are a nice addition if available. These were then formed into flat
rounds about 5 cm in diameter and 1cm thick.
 |
Sliced onion is added to the mashed potato. |
These too were dipped in the besan flour mix and deep fried
and looked delicious, quite like a potato scallop that we enjoy in Australia.
The condiment for all these treats is ezay, and the one made
today is the same that is usually served with momos here and is different to
the recipe we learned in Thimphu and that I posted here.
This time a very large quantity of red chilli powder was
mixed with chopped tomato, sliced onion, salt, water and ‘tasting powder’ (I
had no idea we were eating so much MSG in Bhutan?!). To this, hot cooking oil
was added to give it something special and it was mixed very bravely by hand
(please do not touch your eyes after doing this!).
You can see I’ve managed to write a lot without even
mentioning the actual game of football!
Finally I had a chance to go and check out the action. While
the Chumey MSS boys played against boys from the nearby Vocational Training
Institute, my young students were having a makeshift game on the puddly ‘basketball’
court. They don’t call it monsoon football for nothing. The main field was a
mud bath and I suspect that this is just the beginning – by the end of three
weeks of daily games it will just be slush!
I've been requested to help everyday with catering, and at some point I'm sure I'll sit down and actually watch a game!
 |
Shop set up to sell all our goodies.   |
 |
The little school boys had their own game.  |
I've been requested to help everyday with catering, and at some point I'm sure I'll sit down and actually watch a game!
