New Delhi, Feb. 21 -- Crunchy and crumbly, with a hint of a low heat-tsong thaltak, a whole-wheat onion biscuit-bread topped with poppy seeds that tastes like mathri but crumbles like an oatmeal cookie is hardly what I imagined Ladakhi food to be. A few years ago, when I travelled to Ladakh on work, I was gobsmacked by the sheer variety of baked goods that dotted the cuisine.

From Kunzes Angmo, who runs a culinary experience in Leh called Artisanal Alchemy, I learnt that tsong thaltak is traditionally baked in flat iron containers and buried in dry leaves that cook it overnight. It's just one example of the rich culinary heritage passed down along the Silk Route via traders, scholars and travellers. Ladakhi cuisine is often lumped with o...