Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Food & Drink
Though you won't starve, food will probably not be a highlight of your trip to Tibet. A few
restaurants in Lhasa and some guesthouses in the countryside have begun to elevate a
subsistence diet into the beginnings of a cuisine, but Tibetan food is usually more about
survival than pleasure. On the plus side, fresh vegetables and packaged goods are now
widely available and you are never far away from a good Chinese
fànguǎn
() or
cāntīng
()
restaurant. In eastern Tibet look for the local chilli (made into a paste and served on bread)
and free-range pig.
EATING PRICE RANGES
The following price ranges refer to a standard dish in Chinese restaurants or main course
in Western restaurants. There are no additional taxes though some higher-end places
may add a service charge.
[$]
less than ¥30
[$$]
¥30 to ¥80
[$$$]
more than ¥80
Staples & Specialities
TIBETAN
The basic Tibetan meal is a kind of dough made with tsampa (roasted-barley flour) and yak
butter mixed with something wet - water, tea or beer. Tibetans skilfully knead and mix the
paste by hand into dough-like balls, which is not as easy as it looks! Tsampa with milk
powder and sugar makes a pretty good porridge and is a fine trekking staple, but only a
Tibetan can eat it every day and still look forward to the next meal.
Some common Tibetan dishes include
momos
and
thugpa
.
Momos
are small dumplings
filled with meat or vegetables or both. They are normally steamed but can be fried and are
pretty good. More common is
thugpa,
a noodle soup with meat or vegetables or both. Vari-
ations on the theme include
hipthuk
(squares of noodles and yak meat in a soup) and
thenthuk
(more noodles). Glass noodles known as
phing
are also sometimes used.
The other main option is
shemdre
(sometimes called curried beef), a stew of potatoes
and yak meat on a bed of rice. In smarter restaurants in Lhasa or Shigatse you can try
