藏菜 (zàng cài) / Tibetan: བོད་ཀྱི་ཟས་མཆོག, Tibetan (西藏) Cuisine Part Two
I forget why I abandoned this project, if I indeed deliberately did. I was only about two-thirds of the way through my list. I came across it today, so, now I’ll resume.
I left it hanging for some reason after promising a part two to the previous post.
Here I will mention some typical Tibetan dishes. As I said before, I’ve never been to Tibet itself but have been to Tibetan restaurants in other neighbouring areas of China. Yet, this post will be lighter on images than I would prefer. The food is not that well documented (or is so very badly).
Tibet relies on barley as its staple grain. It is made into རྩམ་པ (tsampa) which is a roasted barley flour used to bake various breads known as Balep བག་ལེབ།. Perhaps the best known is Sha balep (ཤ་བག་ལེབ), which are a kind of fried beef pie which remind me of Cornish pasties!
Various noodle soups (thukpa - ཐུག་པ) are also popular, Among these thenthuk (འཐེན་ཐུག་) is common in the capital Lhasa.
Thenthuk
As said before, the main protein (and source of dairy products is yak (གཡག། - gyag)
Braised Yak
but celebration meals often consist of Lunggoi Katsa (ལུག་མགོ།་) which is a curried sheep’s head stew.
Tibet is also one of the few Chinese areas where they make cheese, again from yak milk. Churpi (ཆུར་བ།) comes in two types – a soft cheese and as an extremely chewy type.
Tibetan Cheese
I must mention momo (མོག་མོག), although these originated in northern China as jiaozi and were introduced to the Himalayas by the Mongols. Whether they went first to Nepal or Tibet and which introduced them to the other is uncertain, although I favour them being from China to Tibet then to Nepal. My reasoning is that Tibetan momos are made in the traditional jiaozi crescent shape, suggesting they are direct introductions, whereas Nepali momo are round like bao buns. Whatever, they are more popular in Nepal these days.
The Tibetan type contain yak, potato or cheese.
Tibetan Yak Momo
