Coming to Shangri-La, Diqing, Yunnan, the hometown of Tibetans, we must not only wear local traditional costumes and experience the magnificence of Tibetan costumes. Tasting authentic Tibetan food is also the most intuitive experience of understanding Tibetan culture.
There are many authentic Tibetan restaurants in the ancient city of Shangri-La Dukezong. Authentic Tibetan cuisine is served here. When coming to cities where Tibetans live, tourists who follow the customs should also get used to the delicious taste of Tibetan food.
The types of Tibetan food are actually not rich, but the ingredients are exquisite, generally divided into two kinds: red food and white food, red food is meat, and white food is milk. On this land that can only breed barley, meat and milk foods have almost become staple foods that Tibetans have passed down for thousands of years.
The staple food of grain that Tibetans eat every day is barley, which is ground into flour as part of the daily staple food. The barley flour is mixed with a little butter tea and kneaded into a ball in the hand, which becomes the most traditional food of the Tibetan people. Barley can also be made into barley wine, barley crisp and other snacks.
Meat is the most important food for tibetans, and these foods can give people enough energy in the cold winter. Yak hot pot, Tibetan pork, hand-grabbed lamb, beef... Meat is a favorite food of the Tibetan people. For the cooking method, tibetans use the simplest and simplest method, without adding too many spices, to ensure the original aroma of meat.
White food is the tibetan favorite dairy products, yak milk, cheese, soufflé, yak yogurt, butter tea, nutrient-rich dairy products, the taste is mellow. The butter tea that the locals like is salty, using milk-extracted ghee as a raw material to brew a pot of milk tea and add some salt, which is the butter tea that Tibetan families drink every day.
Enter a Tibetan restaurant with a rich Tibetan style architecture and fluttering colored curtains full of exotic atmosphere. Beef and mutton, Tibetan pizza, yogurt, butter tea are all must-order delicacies at every table. Tibetan food may not be too delicately processed, but the ingredients come from the grassland and taste natural and pure. Simple cooking techniques also ensure the authentic flavor of Tibetan food.
We tried the hand-grabbed meat, light cooking techniques, only the original aroma of the meat and a slight salty taste, yak yogurt taste pure, compared to the assembly line yogurt, Tibetan yogurt taste more sour, fermentation longer. Known as Tibetan pizza, the beef flatbread has a crispy crust and a fragrant interior, soft and delicious. In order to adapt to the tastes of tourists, the butter tea sold in the restaurant has a sweet choice, if you want to experience the Tibetan flavor, you must choose salty butter tea, which is a traditional flavor that Tibetans have passed down for thousands of years.
The culinary history of Tibetan cuisine has undergone many reforms, from the initial crude system to the later refinement to the final main health of the medicinal diet. Although the types of Tibetan food have not changed to a great extent, with the influence of the Tang Dynasty and Qing Dynasty on Tibetan food culture, Tibetan food has gradually increased the combination of vegetables and fruits, making Tibetan food taste richer and more balanced nutrition.
When you come to Shangri-La, you must go to the Tibetan restaurant to experience authentic Tibetan food, which is a unique flavor that belongs to the Tibetan area of Shangri-La in Yunnan, and is also a representative of a nation and a region.