Festival Fry · Ring-Shaped Rice Bread
Sel Roti
Photo: Swapnil Acharya / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
The batter is hand-poured straight into hot oil in a single looping motion to form the ring — no mold, no cutter, just a practiced wrist.
A batter of rice flour, sugar, ghee, and crushed cardamom rests for hours before being poured freehand into hot oil, where it puffs into a golden, faintly sweet ring. Southern Bhutan's Lhotshampa households fry it by the batch for the festivals of Dashain and Tihar, and street vendors sell it year-round in the region's market towns.
Why it's made this way: Sel roti travelled into southern Bhutan with the Nepali-descended Lhotshampa communities who settled the region, and it remains tied to the same Hindu festival calendar — Dashain and Tihar — that it's fried for across Nepal, Sikkim, and Darjeeling.
Roughly what's in it
290kcal
4gprotein
38gcarbs
14gfat
Estimated per typical street-vendor portion — not lab-tested.
More from Bhutan
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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Photo credits.