What to Eat in Kashmir: A Food Guide from Wazwan to Kahwa

What makes Kashmiri food different?

Kashmiri cooking is slow, aromatic and gentler on chilli than many visitors expect. The red colour of a famous gravy comes mostly from a mild local chilli, while the flavour comes from fennel, dried ginger, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and saffron, with yoghurt, ghee and mustard oil doing much of the cooking. Dry fruit turns up in sweet and savoury dishes alike, and rice is eaten every day.

A cold climate shaped the kitchen. People stored dried vegetables for the snow months, ate warming meat dishes and drank hot tea at every hour. The result is food that is rich, filling and best shared: even a plain family dinner usually arrives in a few large dishes in the middle of the floor or table, and everyone helps themselves.

What is on a wazwan menu?

The wazwan is the festive feast, cooked in bulk by a master cook and served in turns on large shared platters. It is not something you meet in every restaurant, but hotels and hosts can serve a shorter version if you ask a day or two ahead. These are the dishes you hear named most.

Kahwa often follows the last course. If you want to eat a wazwan, tell us the date and the number of guests, and ask a host or a hotel kitchen what they can serve; our culture and food journal explains how the feast is laid out and how to behave at it.

What should you eat if you do not eat meat?

A visitor who skips meat can eat well in Kashmir. Ask for these by name, and say whether you also avoid onion, garlic or eggs.

• Dum aloo: small potatoes cooked in a spiced yoghurt gravy, a good first choice at any restaurant.
• Haak: leafy greens cooked simply with a little oil and chilli, eaten with rice.
• Nadru: lotus stem, served in a yoghurt gravy or fried as a crisp snack.
• Rajma: kidney beans in a thick spiced gravy, popular with rice in Kashmiri homes.
• Paneer in a mild yellow gravy, and fresh bread from the baker for the rest of the meal.

Rules such as Jain, no onion and garlic, or strictly vegetarian are not on every menu. Ask each kitchen before you pay, and ask it to say plainly if it cannot cook to your rule, so you do not find out at the table.

What do you eat for breakfast and on the street?

Street food is part of the pleasure, so go where it is busy and the food comes straight from the fire. Take a driver or guide on your first morning, because the best bakeries and grills are usually in the lanes, not on the main road.

Which drinks and sweets finish the day?

Kahwa is the drink most visitors remember: green tea simmered with saffron, cardamom and cinnamon, often with chopped almonds, and poured from a samovar on a houseboat deck or in a shop. In winter it is the warmest thing in the valley. Noon chai is the everyday tea of the household, salty and creamy, and takes a cup or two to understand.

For sweets, look for phirni, a cool rice pudding scented with saffron and cardamom and served in small earthen bowls; shufta, a dessert of dry fruit and cheese in syrup; and the baked sweets from old-city bakeries. Fruit follows the seasons: cherries and apricots in early summer, apples in autumn, though exact dates vary every year.

How do you eat well and keep your stomach happy?

• Eat where the kitchen is busy, the food is hot and you can see it cooked.
• Drink bottled or filtered water, and ask your houseboat or hotel what they use for tea and ice.
• Share dishes: the food is rich, and a long drive on hill roads is easier on a lighter lunch.
• Ask for the price before you order at a street stall, and carry small notes.
• Children and anyone who dislikes chilli can ask for a mild version of almost any dish.
• Carry a few simple medicines for an upset stomach and take advice from a doctor if you have a medical condition.

We do not name restaurants in this guide, because kitchens open, close and change cooks. Ask us for the current favourites for your dates, or read about the stays on our hotels in Kashmir page, where the kitchen is part of the choice.

How do you plan a trip around food?

1. 1Spend a full day in Srinagar: a bakery breakfast, a home-style lunch and a shikara ride at sunset with kahwa.
2. 2Add one wazwan or a family-style dinner, booked a day or two ahead.
3. 3Take a thermos of tea or ask for hot kahwa on your Gulmarg day; cold and thin air make everyone hungry.
4. 4Shop for saffron and dry fruit at the end of the trip, so nothing is carried around for a week.
5. 5Send us your food rules and your group size, and ask for them in the quote.

To turn the list into a trip, contact Soun Kashmir with your dates and any food rules, and a planner replies with a free quote; the Kashmir tour packages show the trips we list and the price list shows what each costs.