The Bhutanese seemed to have stopped hiding out in their mountains.

The little Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is just a stones throw away from north Bengal and nestles awkardly between India and China. Lately, it has been courting the outside world with the energy of a … a young courting thing (they only got TV in 1999 and already Michael Palin’s made a programme about them).

And now the Beeb reveals that the Bhutanese have a thing for chillies … I like the Bhutanese. The article revolves around Dorji Ohm who is writing a book about chillies, Ms Ohm reveals,

“When we are babies, our mothers put a little chilli in our food. And they keep increasing it gradually.”

and the article states that,

Here chillies are used as a vegetable – and the national dish of Bhutan is the chilli cheese curry. It is called ema datshi. Ema means chilli and datshi is cheese.

Did I say like? I meant to say love … I love those crazy chilli cheese chomping Bhutanese.