Tibet Cuisine could be divided into three divisions. It has a long history and is very distinct. Most raw materials applied in Tibetan dishes are produced in the Tibet Autonomous Region where there are a great number of patterns, varieties and flavours.
Tibetan feasts vary greatly with cooking technique and dish layout. According to the oldest tradition, people decide the appropriate eating practice by the ranking of the guest’s social status, such as serving foods from the trays, or by hands, or through table napkin, or by self-service. There are meat-based and vegetable-based feasts. Presently, in household or collective Tibetan feasts, dishes of Han ethnic group, like hot dishes, cold dishes, soup, staple foods and snacks are also served.
Tibetan dishes primarily consist of staple foods, dishes and soup. Salt is most frequently used whereas sweet seasonings, ginger, curry, pepper powder, caraway, Tibetan aniseed, black pepper, elscholtzia, garlic, shallots, wild garlic, bulb of fritillary and chilli are also common. The use of flavouring greatly varies by variety. The requirements over flavouring are also greatly varied. Tibetan feasts select only the finest raw materials and concentrates on the use of flavour and dish preparation following a strict diet and hygiene control.
Major Tibetan staple foods are as follows.
Roasted Barley Oat Cakes with Cheese and Red Sugar (Ma San, “麻三”). To make such food, high-quality roasted barley oats, grated cheese, red sugar and melted butter are evenly mixed. As soon as it turns thick, the mixture is put into the mould and coated with butter.
Buddhism Rice Porridge with Butter, Meat and Fruit (Mi Da, 咪达) is also known as Nomination Porridge (Mingming Zhou, 命名粥). When the monks of the three major Buddhism temples get their Gexi degree, they shall freely give thick porridge to other monks in the temples for congratulations according to the related rules. To make this porridge, rice is boiled until cooked and mixed with salt, butter, minced meat, red dates, dried apricot slices and raisins. The mixture is covered with the pots lid and simmered over a moderate fire until completely cooked. Before being served the porridge shall be fully stirred.
Main Dishes
Steamed Rice with Curry Lamb and Potato (Tudou Gali Fan, 土豆咖喱饭)
Fresh butter is melted and stir-fried with diced shallots and chopped lamb until half cooked. Then boiled potato is peeled and chopped and braised for a short while in the pan with the half-cooked mixture, aniseeds, curry, salt and other flavouring. Before being served, steamed rice is loaded into a high-heeled bronze container and covered with the cooked sauce made up of diced potato, curry and minced meat.
Stewed Yak Beef with Turnip (Luobu Dun Maoniu Rou, 萝卜炖牦牛肉)
This is a typical Tibetan dish. The cooking method is pretty simple. Chopped yak spare ribs and diced turnip are put into cold water with salt and then stewed. When the dish is cooked, special spices are added. Tibetan chilli sauce is a perfect match to serve with this dish.
Boiled Ox Intestines Filled with Assorted Meat (Guan Niuchang, 灌牛肠)
Boiled mixture of minced highland barley, solidified ox blood, liver and lung is loaded into ox intestines with some flavouring and boiled until completely cooked.
Sausage made with Minced Lamb and Lambs Blood (Xue Chang, 血肠)
The cooking method of this dish is as follows. First, minced mutton, fat, flavouring and solidified lambs blood are stuffed into small lamb’s intestines, quick-boiled and removed from the saucepan before the blood completely solidifies. Guests are encouraged to eat the cooked intestines from the two ends giving a taste that is extremely delicious.
Lamb Sausage (Rou Chang, 肉肠) is also called Oil Sausage (You Chang, 油肠), which uses lamb intestines. Minced mutton is mixed with the flavouring and stuffed into the greasy intestine from the thin end to the thick end. After the intestine is full, it is boiled over a moderate fire.
Flour Sausage with Lamb Fat (Mian Chang, 面肠) uses the stuffing made up of minced lamb fat and flour paste and some other flavouring as the raw materials. Boiling and baking are typical methods to cook this delicacy. The boiled flour sausage is cut into pieces and baked over the fire.
Lamb Liver Sausage (Gan Chang, 肝肠) uses minced lambs liver, lambs fat and flavouring. It could be served after being boiled until cooked. The taste is extremely flavoursome and tasty.
Boiled Lambs Head with Chilli Sauce (Yangtou Liangban, 羊头凉拌) and Boiled Sliced Beef Tripe with Chilli Sauce (Niudu Liangban, 牛肚凉拌)
These two dishes are unique local snacks. The cooking method of the former is as follows. Singed lambs head is boiled until cooked and the meat inside gouged out. Curry powder, aniseed and pepper powder, along with minced lambs brain are mixed with the meat. The cooking method of the latter is similar. The beef tripe must be boiled until completely cooked. Other popular dishes are Deep Fried Sliced Beef (Zha Niurou, 炸牛肉), Deep Fried Lambs Spare Ribs (Zha Yangpaigu, 炸羊排骨), Stewed Diced Beef with Turnip (Luobu Dun Niurou, 萝卜炖牛肉), Braised Sliced Mutton with White Fungus (Yinsi Rouding, 银丝肉丁) and Baked Mushrooms (Kao Mogu, 烤蘑菇).
Highland Barley Cake with Butter Tea (Zan Ba, 糌粑)
It is an important type of Tibetan food. The cooking process is very simple and easy to eat. White and black highland barley flour is dried using direct sunlight. It is then ground into flour and mixed in a bowl with butter tea. You could use your thumb to hold the brink of the bowl and the other four fingers to constantly sway the bowl from side to side. When the butter is evenly mixed with highland barley flour, you can make the mixture into little balls and eat them.
Dried Lamb or Beef (Feng Gan Rou, 风干肉)
This is a very unique type of Tibetan food. When the temperature at the end of the year drops below zero, the local people cut lamb or beef into strips and hang them in shady places to be dried with the natural wind. The sliced beef or meat is then stored and ready to be eaten in the following February or March. This meat is crispy and especially tasty and appetising.
Braised Lambs Spare Ribs with Sesame Seeds (Zhima Yangpai, 芝麻羊排)
High-quality spare ribs from lambs reared in the Naquqiangtang grassland and Indian sesame seeds are braised together to make this dish. Tibetan chilli sauce is a perfect match to serve along side these spare ribs. This dish is extremely flavoursome and crispy.
Snacks
Drinks
Qingke Jiu (青稞酒) Highland barley wine, or oat wine
It is made from highland barley with a very low content of alcohol. All the people in Tibet, old and young, female and male, like to drink it and it is a must have beverage at ceremonious events. The making technique is quite distinct. Highland barley wild oats are washed and boiled until cooked. After being cooled down, the oats are mixed with distillery yeast and sealed in a clay pot or wooden barrel to ferment. After two to three days, water is added and then the lid is re-sealed. One or two days later, the oat wine is ready to be served. The wine is orange, sweet and sour. Its alcohol content is pretty low, similar to that of weak beer. To drink the oat wine, the guest has to follow a special procedure. This means that the guest shall have one drink of wine and then the cup is refilled. After the guest has another drink of wine, the cup is re-filled again. After the third drink, the guest shall drink up the wine as long as the cup is full. In ordinary feasts, female and male hosts always toast the guests while singing drinking songs. In grand banquets, special toasting girls dressed in the most luxurious and magnificent clothing will sing the most enchanting wine drinking songs and repeatedly propose toasts to guests until they are completely drunk. The people from agricultural and pastoral zones have their own features in their diet. Besides Highland Barley Cake with Butter Tea (Zan Ba, 糌粑) and cereal flour, the foods in the pastoral zone could be simply divided into “red foods” and “white foods”. The former refers to meat and the latter to milk. The local people primarily eat white foods in summer and red foods in winter. Famous snacks in the pastoral zone are Hand-picked Roasted Mutton (Shouzhua Yangrou, 手抓羊肉), Baked Lambs Intestines (Kao Yangchang, 烤羊肠) and Dried Lamb or Beef (Fenggan Rou, 风干肉).
Milk Tea (奶茶) There are various types of tea in Tibet, such as butter tea, sweet tea and light tea.
In Tibet, which is known as the roof of the world, when you are hungry or exhausted, as long as a bowl of butter tea is available, you will be greatly refreshed and become energetic. During the windy and freezing cold winter days, several cups of butter tea can make you warm and strengthen your mind to overcome these hard periods. However, the guest should gently blow away the floating oil on the surface and drink several times leaving half of the tea rather than drink too fast. After the host refills the cup, the guest can continue to drink. The guest should drink quietly and sip gently without making any noises, otherwise, the host might feel that the guest is drinking too fast and is not educated at all and resembles “a donkey being watered”. The guest must not drink all in one go or leave immediately after enjoying one cup of the tea. Traditionally, drinking three cups of tea is the most propitious option. In Lhasa, there is an old saying that it is hostile to drink just one cup of tea.
Ghee Tea (酥油茶)
As its name suggests, Tibet Ghee Tea is made of ghee and tea leaves. Edible salt and superior spices are also added in to help create a fine taste. It is recommended by Chinese doctors when living and travelling in Tibet, because Ghee Tea supplies energy to the human body and has a high nutritional value.
Tibet Beer (索里马酒)
Brewed with highland barley, Tibet Beer offers a dry and flat flavour which is very different from any other Chinese beers.
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