Tibetan food...revisited
My food journal has been sadly neglected for too long. Finals, the Great (Fire)Wall of China, and a hurricane got in the way. LJ is blocked in China now, though it didn't used to be. I suppose this is because China is trying to control everything to make sure the Olympics go smoothly. or something. *sigh*
Anyways, I spent a month in Beijing studying Chinese law and enjoying (immensely) eating the local cuisine. I had grand plans to post regularly about all the delicious things I was eating until I found out that apparently my LJ is inharmonious with Olympic expectations. Or something. V_V So here I am now to reminisce about the food I am missing.
Makye Ame is a Tibetan restaurant in Beijing near the Silk Market (and next to Steak & Eggs, my favorite "North American" restaurant in Beijing! ^__^) Now, I was hesitant to go because the last time I was in Tibetan "territory," a.k.a. a Tibetan village in Yunnan province, I had a rather unpleasant experience overall. I react rather badly to high altitudes, I was cold, there were no toilets (not even a hole in the ground), and the food…well I resorted to eating the crushed granola bars at the bottom of my backpack. Not to mention we ate with our hands and I couldn't remember the last time they'd been washed. (Purell only goes so far o_O) Looking back, I think my being unable to breathe was largely the cause of my grumpy attitude while I was there because generally most of those things wouldn't faze me too much. I also think my taste buds have matured a bit since then. (my mom wonders how I went from being such a picky eater as a kid to well, eating scorpions and bugs. ^_^''')
Anyways, back to the food. Tibetan cuisine mainly involves barley, meat (yak, goat, mutton etc.), and dairy products. There aren't a lot of vegetables because not very many things grow well at high altitudes. The Tibetan staple is called tsampa, which is usually made from roasted barley flour, mixed in a bowl to taste with sugar and yak butter tea to make a dough. Tsampa can also be pan-fried or formed into little dumplings. I ordered tsampa dumplings at Makye Ame to give my friends a taste and to give it another try myself. The first time I was NOT impressed. Turns out Tibetan cuisine improves tremendously with the introduction of clean hands and sea level altitude. ^_^''' Tsampa is not spectacular, but it does have that simple, nourishing, filling feeling and taste of a staple food.
these aren't the "tsampa dumplings" from the restaurant, apparently i didn't get a picture of them...
Yak butter tea, you ask? Apparently it's tea with yak butter added to it. Go figure. At least butter has the fat and protein calories to nourish you in the cold climate. In the village I stayed at it was kept warm in a shiny copper or metal teapot hanging over the fire. Here's a picture of the house I stayed in - the wood carvings were magnificent, even if I was grumpy:
the tibetan house we stayed in
Here's the yak butter tea served at the restaurant:
Other things we ate at the restaurant:
dried yak meat
tibetan bread
mashed potatoes with pumpkin juice
fried cheese balls
While we were there we were also regaled with performances of Tibetan music and dancing (which we got to join in on too ^_^).
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i miss chinese food T_T
Anyways, I spent a month in Beijing studying Chinese law and enjoying (immensely) eating the local cuisine. I had grand plans to post regularly about all the delicious things I was eating until I found out that apparently my LJ is inharmonious with Olympic expectations. Or something. V_V So here I am now to reminisce about the food I am missing.
Makye Ame is a Tibetan restaurant in Beijing near the Silk Market (and next to Steak & Eggs, my favorite "North American" restaurant in Beijing! ^__^) Now, I was hesitant to go because the last time I was in Tibetan "territory," a.k.a. a Tibetan village in Yunnan province, I had a rather unpleasant experience overall. I react rather badly to high altitudes, I was cold, there were no toilets (not even a hole in the ground), and the food…well I resorted to eating the crushed granola bars at the bottom of my backpack. Not to mention we ate with our hands and I couldn't remember the last time they'd been washed. (Purell only goes so far o_O) Looking back, I think my being unable to breathe was largely the cause of my grumpy attitude while I was there because generally most of those things wouldn't faze me too much. I also think my taste buds have matured a bit since then. (my mom wonders how I went from being such a picky eater as a kid to well, eating scorpions and bugs. ^_^''')
Anyways, back to the food. Tibetan cuisine mainly involves barley, meat (yak, goat, mutton etc.), and dairy products. There aren't a lot of vegetables because not very many things grow well at high altitudes. The Tibetan staple is called tsampa, which is usually made from roasted barley flour, mixed in a bowl to taste with sugar and yak butter tea to make a dough. Tsampa can also be pan-fried or formed into little dumplings. I ordered tsampa dumplings at Makye Ame to give my friends a taste and to give it another try myself. The first time I was NOT impressed. Turns out Tibetan cuisine improves tremendously with the introduction of clean hands and sea level altitude. ^_^''' Tsampa is not spectacular, but it does have that simple, nourishing, filling feeling and taste of a staple food.
these aren't the "tsampa dumplings" from the restaurant, apparently i didn't get a picture of them...
Yak butter tea, you ask? Apparently it's tea with yak butter added to it. Go figure. At least butter has the fat and protein calories to nourish you in the cold climate. In the village I stayed at it was kept warm in a shiny copper or metal teapot hanging over the fire. Here's a picture of the house I stayed in - the wood carvings were magnificent, even if I was grumpy:
the tibetan house we stayed in
Here's the yak butter tea served at the restaurant:
Other things we ate at the restaurant:
dried yak meat
tibetan bread
mashed potatoes with pumpkin juice
fried cheese balls
While we were there we were also regaled with performances of Tibetan music and dancing (which we got to join in on too ^_^).
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
i miss chinese food T_T