The gorgeous and unique Tibet is the place closest to paradise. In addition to its beautiful scenery, food can also not live up to it. When you come to Tibet, if you want to deeply feel the unique way of life in Tibet, you still need to taste the special Tibetan cuisine-Tibetan food. This area full of unknowns and irreplaceable has made this unique cuisine.
Tibetan cuisine is the general term for Tibetan food, which has a long history. The taste of Tibetan food is light and peaceful. Many dishes, except salt, garlic and shallots, do not put any spicy seasonings, so the original taste of the food is guaranteed. It’s also in line with the current trend of returning to the basics of food culture. While maintaining the traditional dietary culture of the plateau, it is also influenced by Sichuan, Indian and Nepalese food culture. The commonly used cooking methods are roasting, frying, boiling, etc. Representatives include not only dishes made from yak meat and Tibetan pork, but also dishes made with curry and Sichuan pepper. Of course, the daily diet of Tibetans such as tsampa, butter tea, and highland barley wine cannot be lacked.
There is the top 10 Tibetan food that you can’t miss when you visit Tibet.
Tsampa(Zanba)
The main ingredient of Tibetan food Tsampa is barley flour. When eating, add a small amount of butter tea, milk dregs, and sugar into the barley flour and mix them evenly, then knead it into a ball by hand. It is convenient to eat, carry and deposit. And it has rich nutrition and a high quantity of heat. It is also the best food to satisfy hunger and keep out the cold. Therefore, Tsampa has become one of the traditional staple foods in Tibet. Most Tibetans will eat Tsampa three times a day.
When Tibetan people celebrate Tibetan New Year, each family should place “Zhusuo Maqi”(a wooden container) on Tibetan type ark, then fill it with Tsampa, ginseng fruit, and other food. When Neighbors, relatives, and friends visit, the host will serve up the “Zhusuo Maqi”. The guests with his hand grab a bit of Tsampa and throw it into the air three times, and then grab a bit into their mouths, and then said: “Tashi Delek” (good luck).
Butter Tea
Butter tea is the favorite drink of Tibetans. A legend is that Princess Wencheng was not used to the diet of the plateau upon her arrival to Tibet, so she figured out a way to drink half a cup of milk and then half a cup of tea when eating so that it will feel more comfortable. Since then, the tea-drinking style prevailed in Tibet. Later, butter tea invented by Princess Wencheng based on this became a new way of drinking tea.
Butter tea is the Tibetan daily essential drink and also a necessity of lives on the Tibetan plateau. High in calories, it tastes pure and sweet. This special tea is good for health, especially it’s effective in treating altitude sickness, preventing lips from breaking due to dry weather, and also keeping out the cold. There are certain rules for Tibetans to drink butter tea, which is generally added while drinking, rather than being dried up in one mouth.
Sweet Tea
Most people who travel to Tibet are not used to drinking butter tea, but they like to drink sweet tea, especially the sweet tea from Lhasa, which is very famous in Tibet. Lhasa sweet tea is made of boiled black tea juice, milk or milk powder, and white sugar, etc. It is sweet and delicious, rich in nutrition, loved by people. Tibetan sweet tea houses are mainly concentrated in Lhasa and Shigatse, of which Lhasa is the maximum. If you look around the sweet tea houses on Barkhor Street, you will find that Tibetans like to spend time with friends in the sweet tea houses.
Yak Meat
Yak meat is a common food in Tibetan areas. There are yak jerky, marinated yak meat, and a variety of dishes made with fresh yak meat. Tibetan yak meat is selected from the yaks produced on the Tibetan Plateau, with an altitude of more than 3,800 meters. It has the characteristics of high protein, low fat, high calorie, and rich in various amino acids. It has significant effects on disease resistance, cell activity, and organ function. And, its nutrition value is ten times that of common beef.
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