Kashmiri food is a cuisine of ceremony and warmth — built for cold winters and big gatherings, heavy on meat and aromatics, and crowned by one of the great feasts of the subcontinent. Eating in the valley is a cultural experience as much as a culinary one.
The Wazwan is Kashmir's multi-course banquet, prepared by master cooks (wazas) and served traditionally at weddings and celebrations — a procession of rich meat dishes eaten from a shared plate, the trami. It's not everyday food; it's an occasion, and being invited into even a taste of it is a window into Kashmiri hospitality. Approach it hungry and unhurried.
Rogan josh — tender lamb in a deep red, aromatic gravy — is the ambassador of Kashmiri food, and nothing like the version served elsewhere. Gushtaba (velvety minced-meat balls in yoghurt gravy) traditionally closes a Wazwan. Rista, tabak maaz and yakhni round out the meat table, each distinct, each layered with Kashmiri spice.
The Kashmiri Pandit tradition brings a whole vegetarian repertoire — dum aloo done the Kashmiri way, haakh (the local greens), nadru (lotus stem), and rajma that locals swear by. It's subtler than the meat feast but no less rooted in the valley's flavours.
End — or punctuate — any day with kahwa, the green tea brewed with saffron, cardamom, cinnamon and almonds, poured from a samovar. Kashmir's bread culture is a joy too: the tandoor breads of the morning bakery, eaten warm with butter and tea, are a small daily ritual worth adopting.
To eat in Kashmir is to be welcomed into it. On a GoRaahi Kashmir trip we open the door to the valley's food — the kahwa, the breads, and a taste of the Wazwan tradition — as part of the journey.
Read next: Kashmir: The Valley, Honestly
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