Phagshapa

The signature Bhutia pork preparation of Sikkim — strips of pork fat and lean meat slow-cooked with dried red chilli, white radish (mooli), and a minimum of spices in a sealed vessel until the fat renders and the radish absorbs the pork oils completely. No onion, no garlic, no ginger — only pork, radish, dried red chilli, and salt. The austerity of the ingredients is the point; the rendered pork fat becomes the cooking medium for the radish, and the dried chilli provides the only aromatic complexity. A traditional Bhutia dish eaten at the Losar (Tibetan New Year) festival and through the winter months when pork is butchered and preserved across highland Sikkim.