Lhasa Cuisine

In Lhasa, your first tastes are naturally Tibetan meal. The cow mutton, Zanba, buttered tea are necessary on the dinner table, in addition with yogurt, Tibetan steamed stuffed bun, Tibetan barley liquor, fresh milk, sweet tea, green tea and so on. The snow god palace restaurant locating at the west wall of the Potala Palace have the pure Tibetan food, the fresh beef there can be eaten with the juice or with air dryed. The hand grasping mutton, fried mutton chop, poured bowel are quite of the plateau characteristic; The Majiami restaurant situated at the south-east angle of Anise Street is also very famous with its beautiful madrigal and delicious dish. The Sichuan dish is another kind of host besides the Tibetan food, the Chongqing small swan, the Tan fish head also settled down in Lhasa. Both the tourist and the native like them.Moreover, there is one street with kinds of delicious food in Lhasa , which gathers famous cuisine and snacks from the whole country named Deji road. You just can't imagine how rich the diet type is. Certainly, Lhasa also supplies the western-style food, also the Indian dish and the Nepalese dish. The westen dining halls mainly concentrate on the Beijing road. Many dining room of hotels suppliy the western-style food. The eight-porch hotel is one of them. The North America fast-food shop is a specialized western-style fast-food shop in Lhasa. The Nepalese vegetable of the Snow Territory dining room is very fine, and is worth having a try.

The introduces of some special features snack

>>Cotton garment Shan Zhen
The nutritious soup is thick, and the chafing dish lives strongly up with the fungus category. This is not only delicious but also healthy.

>>Fresh cow meat sauce
It mix smashed fresh beef with several worthy Tibetan medicine wonderfully. People of Lhasa entertain the distinguished guest with it.It has a clear scarlet color and a very strong feeling. When you eats it up, you will feel warm and comfortable.

>>Air drying beef
The raw beef the Tibetan nation likes.It was made at every autumn. People cut off the fresh beef into strips, puts on the string the table salt, the pepper, hot pepper, the ginger powder, and hang the beef in coolly and ventilate place. After the air drying it becomes flaxen, friable and fragnant. And while chewing it does not have the dregs to stuff your tooth.Tibet belongs to the high and cold area, so the food is not easy to become rotten or deteriorated. The beef can keep fresh for a long time after drying, therefore until today, the air drying beef is still extremely popular.

>>GuTu
This is Tibetan nationality's family dinner on lunar new year's eve, that is, the December 29th in the Tibeten calendar. Its original meaning is " the gruel with nine materials on December".The gruel is made of nine materials: wheat grain, apricot, wool, hot pepper, porcelain piece, introverted twist group, extroverted twist group, pea, charcoal. Every material has its certain significance.The person who has eaten wool will be easily moved in the next year; Person who has hot pepper will not have mercy on others; However if a person has charcoal, he will do bad things next year, and so on.


>>The fruit of ginseng
The ginseng fruit is growing in the snow territory. Tibetan call it the ever-living fruit meaning immortality.It contains rich sugar, protein, amino acid and many kinds of vitamin, Also it does a lot of benefit to your lung and sprit. Edible method: Clean the fruit and boil it with cold water for approximately one hour, then put a little edible oil and white sugar; Boiling it with the chicken or duck is good to your brain and your lung. Making soup together with the tremella becomes the healthy " the pearl soup ". It can also be made to boil the ginseng fruit gruel.

>>Sa Gan Cha gate
It belongs to the milk product, which can be called Sa Gan.It is popular in the southeast of Chayu area. There grow a large number of Guai trees. Remove the peel of fifteen branch, and put them in the barrel. Then pour the fresh milk in. There will form one thickness cake around the branches gradually, which is called Sa Gan. It is extremely fresh and tender, cannot be kept for a long time. Takes out the cake and boil it with the meat and condiment together. Then the Sa seasoning beef is made; Add the butter in the pot, after it is burning put in Sa Gan, a little sugar or salt. Then the SaGan soup is made, which can enrich the blood; Sa will do boils thoroughly bails out, Mix the SaGan with the hot pepper, the coriander, the wild onion, the yogurt together, then the cold Sa Gan is made.

>>MaSen
First mix the Zaba, the crushed milk dross, the butter, and the brown sugar, then join certain amount of cold boiling water. At last put in one small square wooden box, and stuff it up as possible as possible you can.While eating, pour out and slice it.

>>" three treasures" in the north of Tibet: "
The Chinese caterpillar fungus stewing the snow cock ", " the mushroom stewing the mutton " and " the ginseng fruit mixes the melted butter and rice " is " has the reputation of" three treasures of northern Tibet ".
The Chinese caterpillar fungus is the Dong Chon Xia Cao. At the beginning of every June, the grass is green and the wild flowers flutter?Dong Chou Xia Cao, a kind of fungus, out grow from the underbrush by one inch. People dig it out from the root and disrober outside layer. Understands has to one, has the mouth, has the full small thing. This is Dong Chou Xia Cao-a very small thing with head, mouth and foot. There perch many snow cocks with gorgeous feather on the mountain. This kind of snow cock looks like pearl chicken. Its meet is delicate, the flavor is tasty. Stew the Chinese caterpillar fungus and the snow cock together with a little Huang Qi. The soup is very fresh , is one of "three treasures of northern Tibet". If you boil the gruel with the ginseng fruit together, it is very fragrance and tasty. When celebrates the New Year and holidays, or when visitor come, the Tibetan is commonly used "the ginseng fruit mixes the melted butter and rice "entertains the visitor The Tibetan first cook the rice, then mixes the melted butter, in addition, put some white sugar and ginseng fruit in it, and then it is edible. This kind of food is fragrant and delicious, its nutrition is rich. No matters old and young all like to eat. This kind of food is called the second of the "three treasures of northern Tibet".
Takes some cleaned fresh mushroom and slivered mutton, and then cook them with flavorings. the meat has the mushroom's fragrance, and the mushroom has the meat taste. Its fragrance is attractive and the aftertaste is infinite. There is one kind of mushroom which is called" the match summer" by natives is the top grade of mushrooms. If you cook mutton with this kind of mushroom, then the mutton does not have the mutton smell; if it is cooked With the chicken or pork, the fragrance is everywhere and the soup and meat are both delicious. The person who has eaten it will not tire of it forever. This kind of food is called the third of "the three treasures of northern Tibet".

>>Present "QieMa"
In Tibetan calendar New Year time, Every Tibetan family will present their QieMa, and everybody will taste it.This ethnic custom is formed by Tibetan people in the long history development. QieMa is held by a special king of alms bowl.it is a kind of rectangle empty box which made by wood. And it is separated into two parts by a small wood board, and there are moon and stars on this board. One of the bowl's fringes is filled with the mixed butter zanba, another fringe is filled with the wheat, and both sides are built like a pyramid. And there are some Guyizi and green spikes on both side of the bowl. In the middle, there will be one flower or the "the character bead "(beautiful flower) which made by butter. During Tibetan calendar New Year, When you enter a Tibetan family, the old lady will first present you " QieMa ", at this moment, you should take some QieMa from those bowls. And said "Zaxidelai " ( which is meaning propitious and pleasant).After a while, you should put some into your mouth again. This means happy New Year and be healthy.

>>Boiled sausage
also be called three sausages or five sausages. Boiled sausage takes the fresh sheep small intestine as the clothes, and is filled separately by sheep blood, mutton, the Tibetan barley powder or the bean powder, they are called the blood sausage, the meat sausage, the flour sausage, also called three sausages; in addition, sausage fills with sheep liver, sheep oil, which are called liver sausage, oil sausage. Altogether, they are called five sausages. Mostly, this kind of food is made by Tibetan in the New Year for eating in the festival.

>>Sheep blood sausage
In Tibetan ethnic area, regardless of peasant or herdsman, when butcher a sheep, the sheep blood will not be boiled to eat. Instead, they fill sheep blood into sausage to cook. This kind of sausage is fragrant and tender. If you take one, it will make you feel good, because it has the distinct taste. The making process is very simple. First, minces the best mutton to be used, puts in right amount of salt, the Chinese prickly ash, a little of zanba powder in the mutton, then mix them up. Second, you should fill it into sausage, separated the sausage with string. The making process is the same as making sausage. When you eat it, it is not pulpy and dregs, and does not shed skin. It is fragrant, soft and tender, and has blood fragrance. At the same time, it will not greasy your mouth. The making process of blood sausage is also special.Put the ready blood sausage into hot water to cook. When it turns to grey, take pot away from fire. Put them into a dish, then cut to eat.