Spitian kitchen supper with sea buckthorn

Spiti's food comes from a short growing season and a long winter. Barley is roasted and ground into tsampa, eaten with butter tea or rolled into dough. Thukpa, a noodle soup, is the everyday dinner. Green peas, potatoes and cabbage come from the fields in summer, and dried cheese and meat get families through the cold months.

Sea buckthorn grows wild along the Spiti and Pin rivers. Its small orange berries ripen in September and are pressed into a sharp, bright juice that cafes and homestays sell by the glass or bottle. Locally it is called chharma, and collecting and processing it has become a source of cash income for village women.

Ask your homestay if you can sit in the kitchen while dinner is cooked. Most Spitian homes cook on a cast-iron stove that also heats the room, and evenings are spent around it. Offer to help, eat what is served, and avoid wasting food in a valley where every kilo of rice arrives by truck over a high pass.