More Bhutanese than Ever

This year, UM has the biggest Bhutanese contingent ever: 3 Masters students in Forestry, 1 Masters student in Journalism, 1 Masters in Music and 1 PhD student in Wildlife Biology. This is by far the biggest group of Bhutanese in Missoula. Last week, I went over to the PEAS farm to check on the Bhutanese chilies and they were doing great - I bit on one to see how hot it was, and boy it was HOT! At the Farmers' Market on Saturday (yesterday) I went to see Josh Slotnick, Director of PEAS farm and co-owner (with his wife) of Clark Fork Organics to confirm dates for the festival. Passang Norbu (from Kuensel) and I stopped by our Tibetan friend Tshedor's stall for a while before heading out to the grocery store.

The only places I have tried tripe (goep) in the US are at Vietnamese restaurants (they serve it in Pho) and other Bhutanese homes. Of course you can pick up the fibrous bundle at Asian markets, but not in Missoula. So, we went to the only place where we could get it - WalMart! Yes, of all places. (I know, my friends Ari, Josh and other Missoulian locavores who despise any mysterious meat shipped across thousands of miles, but relish only local meat, including the bountiful game Montana offers, would be in shock, but this is only for culinary experimentation). Back in the kitchen I had to cook it for more than an hour to really get it into an edible state. Pressure cooking might have helped, on hindsight. But we did manage a good "goep paa" with Bhutanese dried chilies, spring onion, ginger and eggplant cooked in olive oil.