Typical Tibetan Foods

Hello all,

Tibetan food consists mainly of meat, dairy products and barley. Butter, milk and yogurt, mainly produced by yak, as well as a dough called tsampa are consumed almost daily by Tibetans. Dried beef and mutton strips are eaten both cooked and raw. Tea is a popular beverage of choice in Tibet, most common being a salted butter tea called pocha.

Tsampa
Tsampa, a dough made of roasted barley flour and yak butter, acts as a staple in the Tibetan diet, eaten at almost every meal. Depending on what tsampa is to be served with, or how it is to be cooked, tsampa can be tailored to be either salty or sweet. The process of making tsampa begins by adding boiled water or tea to yak butter, followed by roasted barley flour, and finally kneaded into balls to be eaten or used for other recipes.

Yak Butter
Yak butter, separated from yak milk during the churning process, is used for cooking as well as in tea and tsampa dough. The residue from the churning process makes a mild curd and can be incorporated in pastries.

Thanks and Regards
Montana Marla