Kashmiri food is its own cuisine, not a regional variation of North Indian cooking. It leans on dried and slow-cooked meat, yoghurt, dried ginger, fennel and Kashmiri chilli — which contributes deep red colour without much heat. Understanding a few staples changes what you order.
Wazwan, briefly
Wazwan is the ceremonial multi-course meal cooked by a team of chefs called wazas, traditionally served at weddings. Guests share a large copper plate, the trami, in groups of four. A full wazwan can run to dozens of courses and is not something you casually order at a restaurant, though many places serve a shortened version.
The dishes to know
Rogan josh is the famous one: lamb slow-cooked with Kashmiri chilli and aromatics, red and mild rather than fiery. Gushtaba is a large, exceptionally smooth meatball poached in a yoghurt gravy, traditionally the final savoury course. Rista is its red-gravy cousin. Tabak maaz is lamb ribs simmered then fried until the edges crisp. Yakhni is a delicate yoghurt-based lamb curry flavoured with fennel and cardamom, and is the gentlest introduction to the cuisine.
Eating vegetarian
Wazwan is heavily meat-based, but Kashmiri vegetarian cooking is genuinely good rather than an afterthought. Look for haakh, a local collard green simmered simply with chilli and mustard oil, eaten with rice almost daily in Kashmiri homes. Nadru — lotus stem from the lakes — appears as yakhni or fried into crisp rounds. Dum aloo here is distinct from the Punjabi version: small potatoes in a yoghurt and fennel gravy.
Bread and tea
Kashmiri bakeries open early and sell lavasa, tsochvoru and the sesame-crusted czot. Buy bread in the morning as locals do, and eat it with nun chai — the pink salt tea whose colour comes from a long simmer and a pinch of soda, not from any dye. It is salty, not sweet, and takes a cup or two to appreciate. Kahwa is the other tea: green, with saffron, cardamom and slivered almonds, served after meals.
Where to eat
Downtown Srinagar has the oldest establishments and the most traditional cooking. Along the Boulevard you will find food adapted for visitors, which is fine but rarely the best version. If you are invited into a home, accept — domestic Kashmiri cooking is where the cuisine actually lives.
