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Food of Kashmir — the wazwan feast, kahwa and noon chai, and what else the valley eats
What to eat in Kashmir: the multi-course wazwan with rogan josh and gushtaba, kahwa with saffron, pink noon chai, haakh and rice, nadur and Mushk Budji rice.
Kashmir's food is built around rice, greens and meat, with a long tea habit on top. Wikipedia says Kashmir has, per head, the highest mutton consumption on the subcontinent, and that bread is not the centre of most meals. This guide goes by what Wikipedia documents, read on 24 October 2026. We name no restaurant, price or rating, because we have none we can check.
Photos: Sayantan Sarkar (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Miansari66 (CC0) — via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
Wazwan, the feast
In Kashmiri, waz means cook and wan a shop, and wazwan is the multi-course feast of the Kashmiri cooks. The royal wazwan has 36 courses. Between 15 and 30 are meat, cooked overnight under a master chef called the wouste waze, and the junior cooks, the waza, carry the food out.
Four guests share one large copper plate, the traem. A basin is taken round for washing hands first. Wikipedia lists seven dishes that must be on the table:
- Tabakh maaz, lamb ribs braised in ground spices and then browned in ghee.
- Rista, meatballs in a red gravy with paprika, saffron and fennel.
- Rogan josh, lamb in Kashmiri spices.
- Daniwal korma, lamb roasted with yoghurt, onion puree and coriander.
- Aab gosh, lamb with fennel, cardamom and partly reduced milk.
- Marchhwangan korma, chicken legs in a spicy browned-onion sauce.
- Gushtaba, large meatballs in a yoghurt gravy. It closes the main course, and dessert follows.
Yoghurt and chutneys come in small earthen pots. All dishes are halal. Vegetarians are served dum aalu, nadur, the lotus stem, haakh, the collard greens, and a vegetarian pulao. Wikipedia says that wazwan was once served only at feasts for dozens or hundreds, and that in recent years restaurants run by hereditary waza cooks sell the dishes by the plate.
Rice, greens and the season
Rice is the staple. The Mushk Budji rice of the higher valley won a Geographical Indication tag in February 2022, and Kashmiri red rice, called Zaag Batt, is grown at Tangdhar. The commonest vegetables include haakh, kohlrabi, lotus stem, shallots and water chestnut, and the floating vegetable gardens of Dal Lake are described as the world's second biggest wholesale vegetable market.
Food follows the season. Spring brings tender haakh and the blossom. Lotus-stem harvest starts in September, when the saffron fields of Pampore are in bloom. In winter, families dry aubergines, tomatoes, gourds and turnips on the sills and cook on the daan, a twin-hearth stove. For more on the seasons, read when to visit Srinagar.
Tea: kahwa and noon chai
Noon chai, also called sheer chai, is a pink salted tea. Green tea leaves are boiled for a long time with baking soda until they turn burgundy, and milk turns the colour pink. Wikipedia says it is drunk many times a day, usually from a samovar, and with breads such as kulcha, girda and tsochwor. The word noon means salt.
Kahwa is a green tea boiled with saffron, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves, and sometimes rose petals. It is served with sugar or honey and crushed almonds or walnuts, and usually without milk. Wikipedia says it follows a wazwan and is poured for guests, and that saffron is added for special visitors.
Other drinks
Wikipedia names Kashmiri lassi, a salty churned yoghurt drink, and babribyol sharbat, sweetened milk with basil seeds and rose syrup.
Where to eat them
Start in Srinagar, then take the road to Gulmarg and Pahalgam. Read how to reach Kashmir and Ladakh from Delhi, the festivals by month and the food of Ladakh.
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Questions people ask
What is wazwan?
The formal multi-course feast of Kashmir. Wikipedia says the royal wazwan has 36 courses, with 15 to 30 of them meat, cooked overnight under a master chef, the wouste waze. Guests sit in groups of four and share a large copper plate, the traem. It ends with the meatball gushtaba, then dessert.
What is the difference between kahwa and noon chai?
Kahwa is green tea boiled with saffron, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves, served with sugar or honey and chopped almonds or walnuts, usually without milk. Noon chai is a salted pink tea that combines milk, salt, baking soda and green tea leaves, drunk through the day and at breakfast with bread.
Do vegetarians eat well in Kashmir?
Kashmiri cooking is meat-heavy, but there is a real vegetarian side. Wikipedia names dum aalu, nadur, the lotus stem, and haakh, the collard greens, with a vegetarian pulao, and says haakh-batte, greens and rice, is the Kashmiri word for daily bread. Ask for these at a feast or a home.