When ingredients are king: New cafe brings Perth a taste of the Himalayas

The Himalayas aren’t just a mountain range that runs across South Asia – this geographical landmark is also awash with adventure, mysticism and discovery.

For some, the monks and monasteries of Tibet are the first thing they’ll think of; for some it’s Everest, K2 and dreams of conquering nature. Others, meanwhile, will go straight to the stomach.

Druk Cafe is an all-day Bhutanese restaurant now open at Waterford Plaza.Credit: Max Veenhuyzen

If you know where to look, you can snatch little glimpses and mouthfuls of the Himalayas around Perth.

Certain Indian restaurants, for instance, will offer naan prepared in the Kashmiri manner and studded with fruits and nuts and perfumed with sweet spice. Momos, dhal bat and puffed rice, meanwhile, are ubiquitous at the city’s Nepalese establishment. I’m also hoping to get to Tibet Stove at the Fremantle Markets sooner rather than later too. (Have you been? How was it?)

And with the opening of Druk Cafe at Waterford Plaza, eaters south of the river now have another Himalayan cuisine to check for: the compelling, ginger-accented food of Bhutan (on the other side of the Swan, Coolbinia’s Bhutan Cuisine has been flying the flag for the landlocked Himalayan country’s food).

Named after the Bhutanese word for the Thunder Dragon (the country’s national emblem) Druk is a colourful all-day eatery serving homegrown dishes, from breakfast to dinner, daily.

If staff ask you if you’d like “spicy sauce”, the answer should always be yes.

Owner Tschering Gyeltshen grew up in a remote village in Bhutan’s east – his family’s home was one of just 90 households – but gradually made his way to Bhutan’s capital of Thimpu where he worked in human resources for the government.

In a bid to strengthen his qualifications, he relocated to Perth in 2019 to get his masters, but his plans, like everyone else’s, got upended by COVID.

With HR work no longer an option, he turned to commercial cookery so he could stay in Perth. After working at various Perth hotels and restaurants including Miss Chow’s and Emily Taylor, he felt it was time he cooked his own food rather than other people’s.

“Because Bhutan is close to Nepal, China and India, there are some similar things in our cuisines,” says Gyeltshen, who cooked recreationally in Bhutan, “but we don’t use a lot of seasoning in our food. Maybe just a little bit of salt and maybe some chilli. We want to capture the actual taste of the ingredients.”

Sikam paa (dried pork belly stir-fried with chilli and vegetables). Credit: Max Veenhuyzen

The noodle soups deliciously encapsulate his less-is-more thinking. While the noodles might be the headliners – the bathup features bitey housemade flour noodles, the thukpa sees al dente spaghetti stand in – the cloudy, deeply savoury broth made from beef, beef marrow bones and chicken deserves co-headliner status. Pieces of slow-cooked beef rendered crisp via a quick deep-fry are a welcome, meaty addition.

The momo dumplings are a little flatter than the rounder Nepalese specimens I’ve tended to see around town. Team Druk stuff their momos with pork, beef or veggies and seal them with an ornate pleated seam, reminding me of culurgiones, or Sardinian dumplings.

You can get your momos steamed or fried and served dry, in the aforementioned house stock, or in a shallow puddle of jhol, a creamy gravy powered with the gentle buzz of fried chilli and ginger.

That chilli and ginger one-two is a recurring motif in our man’s cooking. Siikam paa (dried pork stir-fried with chillies) is also notable for its gentle capsaicin sting.

The bright orange ezay is a house-made chilli sauce that introduces garlic, turmeric and a few other trade secrets to the mix to create a lively condiment that you’ll want to ladle onto everything. If staff ask you if you’d like “spicy sauce”, the answer should always be yes.

The main breakfast offering will be desi, Bhutan’s sweet yellow rice cooked with cashew nut, saffron, butter and sugar. It’s designed to play nicely with suja, or Bhutanese butter tea, a beverage that goes by various names throughout the region.

Otherwise, an “anytime food” menu featuring Bhutan-style fried rice and chow mein noodles as well as pre-packaged takeaway rice dishes (a gutsy dry Bhutanese-style beef curry, for example) is on hand throughout the day: just the sort of affordable, meal on the run a student from nearby Curtin University might want to hook in to in between classes.

Druk Cafe (Shop 17, Waterford Plaza, 230 Manning Road, Waterford) is open daily from 8am to 10pm