Sikkim & Darjeeling Hills · Eastern Himalaya & Brahmaputra Belt
Single-estate Darjeeling by flush and garden
A tasting counter as much as a shop — the useful thing is to be shown first flush against second flush from the same garden, which is the fastest way to understand what the GI is actually protecting.
Bakery, breakfast and a nineteenth-century dining room on Nehru Road
The building and the bakery both date from the late colonial town; the bread is still made downstairs.
Thukpa, thenthuk and momo
One of the Tibetan family kitchens that set the standard for what a bowl of thukpa should be on this ridge.
Kalimpong cheese and Kalimpong lollipops
Both products descend from the Swiss-run dairy set up in the town in the 1950s, which closed in 1990; former employees carried the methods into small units that still supply shops like this one.
Outsized pork momos
An old hotel dining room that has outlasted several generations of Kalimpong's trading families.
Hand-knotted carpets, thangka, choktse tables and handmade paper
State-run since the 1950s, and both a training school and a showroom — the clearest single place to see what the region's crafts are supposed to look like when done properly.
Sikkim's only tea garden, planted in 1969
Government-run, entirely organic, and small enough that the factory tour and the shop are the same visit. The tea sits stylistically between Darjeeling and the Nepal hill gardens.
Bhatti-cured large cardamom, dalle achar, churpi and gundruk
Buy cardamom by smell — the smoke note from the curing shed is the thing to check, and it is what distinguishes the local crop from flue-dried cardamom sold under the same name.
Famous shops, markets and workshops in Sikkim & Darjeeling Hills, and what each is known for. (8)