Unlike other parts of South Asia and the rest of the world, in this tiny Himalayan kingdom chillies are not used as a spice to flavour food.

Here chillies are used as a vegetable - and the national dish of Bhutan is the chilli cheese curry. It is called ema datshi. Ema means chilli and datshi is cheese.

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But the national culinary obsession for chillies is clearly not to everyone's taste.

Even for the die-hard admirers of ema datshi, the going can get tough sometimes.

While we are waiting for our meal to be served, a young woman sitting at the next table suddenly turns towards us. Tears streaming down her face, she shouts, "It's hot hot hot!"

And as she makes a grab for a glass of chilled water, Ms Ohm says if you drink anything hot while eating ema datshi, it makes it worse.

Perhaps it is the Bhutanese people's love for chillies that explains the rising cases of stomach ulcers.

Doctors blame the disease on the excessive use of chillies. As a result, Ms Ohm says, some educated parents are now trying to reduce chillies in their children's diet.