When we first sat for our local Bhutanese meal, we didn’t even know the name of this dish. The food guide said ‘a chilli paste dish in Bhutan is a must’. So at lunch, among other dishes, we got our first look at the dish. Our server explained: ‘This is aezay, the traditional chilli paste’.
What makes it special is that it is made from a dried local chilli. It is about a span long and is bigger in circumference as well. Quite interested, we took half a teaspoon each to test its intensity. It was fiery hot but aromatic and flavourful. By the end of the traditional meal, we had already devoured two dessert-sized bowls of aezay among my two friends and me. After that, the next six days of our stay in Thimphu, Punakha Valley and Paro, we ate bowls of aezay for lunch and dinner, and sometimes with our snacks as well.
In the process, we got to taste a wide range of this accompaniment. Every house and restaurant has its own style of the dish, which can be vegetarian and non-vegetarian alike. The chilli powder can be mixed with a wide range of ingredients, including fresh crumbled cow cheese, minced meat with fresh peppercorns or onions. Some places mix the chilli powder with black pepper and freshly minced tomatoes to make a paste which is a perfect condiment to bland soups or the butter tea.
In my search for aezay to bring back home, I stumbled upon readymade beef and dried shrimp aezay. During this search, we also came across something in a provision shop; to make things easy, the shop had a coarsely dried chilli powder of the Bhutia chilli. This is used by locals to prepare aezay at home.
The Bhutanese do not have a concept of dal or curry, but no meal is complete without aezay, informed our guide on a parting note.
