Popular Tibetan Dishes

Tibetan cooking has been influenced by its neighbor India, but makes use of ingredients indigenous to the mountains. Tibetan cuisine is similar to that of Nepal. Travel to the Himalayas and interest in Buddhism has stimulated curiosity about Tibetan culture.

There are many restaurants in Lhasa, Shigatse, and Zetang, All restaurants of various classes are decorated and furnished in the traditional Tibetan style. Diners can enjoy delicious Tibetan  dishes while admiring paintings and murals symbolizing happiness and good luck in the restaurants. High on the menu are such flavors as sausages, barley wine, butter oil tea, beef and mutton eaten with the hands, yak tongue, steamed buns, zanba made from highland barley, pastries, sweet tea, butter tea, dried beef, and xiapuqing, or minced mutton and beef.

There are also a number of Tibetan restaurants in the United States, especially in large cities and in college towns. Novices should be warned that Tibetan cheese is usually hard enough to break teeth, and should be moistened in the mouth before chewing.

Popular and Recommended Tibetan Dishes:

• tsampa (roated barley flour);


• momo (steamed or fried dumplings);


• stir-fried meats;


• thukpa (noodle soup with meat and sometimes vegetables);


• carrot cake;


• banana porridge;


• lamb with radish;


• caramel tea;


• soja (butter tea);


• barley ale


• Sha Balep - a bread stuffed with seasoned beef.
  
  
  
  • Balep korkun - a central Tibetan flatbread that is made on a skillet rather than in an oven.
  
  
  • Momos - a type of steamed ravioli, a heavier version of the Chinese jiaozi
  
  
  • Thenthuk - a type of cold-weather soup made with noodles and various vegetables.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Tibetan cuisine, is quite distinct from that of its neighbours, since only a few crops (not including rice) grow at such high altitude. The most important crop is barley. Dough made from barley flour, called tsampa, is the staple food of Tibet. This is either rolled into noodles or made into steamed dumplings called momos. Meat dishes are likely to be yak, goat, or mutton, often dried, or cooked into a spicy stew with potatoes. Mustard seed is cultivated in Tibet, and therefore features heavily in its cuisine. Yak yoghurt, butter and cheese are frequently eaten, and well-prepared yoghurt is considered something of a prestige item.

In larger Tibetan towns and cities many restaurants now serve Sichuan-style Chinese food. Western imports and fusion dishes, such as fried yak and chips, are also popular. Nevertheless, many small restaurants serving traditional Tibetan dishes persist in both cities and the countryside.

Most Tibetans drink many cups of yak butter tea each day. Jasmine tea is also sometimes available.  Brick tea is made by methods only distantly related to those employed in China or Ceylon. When the water boils, a great handful of the stuff is crumbled into it and allowed to stew for between five and ten minutes, until the whole infusion is so opaque that it looks almost black. At this stage a pinch of salt is added; the Tibetans always put salt, never sugar, in their tea. They very seldom, on the other hand, drink tea without butter in it. If you are at home, you empty the saucepan into a big wooden churn, straining the tea through a colander made of reed or horsehair. Then you drop a large lump of butter into it, and, after being vigorously stirred,this brew is transferred to a huge copper teapot and put on a brazier to keep it hot. When you are traveling, you do not normally take a churn with you, so everyone fills his wooden bowl with tea, scoops a piece of butter out of a basket, puts it in the bowl, stirs the mixture gently with his finger, and, finally, drinks the tea.

Alcoholic beverages include:

• Chang, a beer usually made from barley


• Pinjopo, a rice wine.

The staple Tibetan food is barley flour (rtsam-pa), which is consumed daily. Other major foods include wheat flour, yak meat, mutton, and pork.

Dairy products such as butter, milk, and cheese are also popular. The people in the higher altitudes generally consume more meat than those of the lower regions, where a variety of vegetables is available. Rice is generally restricted in consumption to the well-to-do families, southern border farmers, and monks.

`Tubo', a savoury evening gruel made of lumps of wheat flour, tsamba, dried meat and a tuber called `yuangen'.