In my travel itinerary, in addition to visiting natural and cultural landscapes, another very important content is to taste the local famous foods in exotic places.
In general, Lhasa's catering industry is not developed, most of the street restaurants are Sichuanese, Gansu people run Sichuan cuisine, ramen, etc., decent Tibetan restaurants are also few, want to enjoy delicious food on the plateau may be disappointing.
I went to a few restaurants run by Han Chinese in the mainland, and I felt that the taste was very general, and it seemed that there was no color and aroma of the mainland, probably because of the low pressure on the plateau, it was difficult to make food.
I flipped through the Tibetan tourist brochure, the "Snowy Restaurant" near the Tibetan Hospital was good, and I came to the Snowy Restaurant located on the north side of the Jokhang Temple.
Located at No. 4 Tibetan Hospital Road, Xueyu Restaurant has been introduced and reported in many tourist brochures, and the dining environment is elegant, the price is medium, and it is said that it has a history of 5 years.
I asked for grilled steak, barley wine, butter tea, Tibetan buns, etc., the dishes are not small, and it seems that it is very difficult to eat them all, but in order to taste the Tibetan food, the right and luxury.
Grilled steak and Tibetan buns don't seem to be as delicious as the mainland Muslims, butter tea has a slight salty taste and milk aroma, I think if I can drink more time, I will definitely like this special Tibetan drink.
Many people have seen or heard of butter tea in various film and television works, and know that it is a famous drink in Tibet, but I am afraid that not many people have actually tasted butter tea, which is actually a treasure on the plateau.
Butter tea is a daily must-have drink for Tibetan compatriots and a necessity for life on the Tibetan plateau. When it is cold, it can drive away the cold, when you eat meat, you can get tired, when you are hungry, you can be hungry, and when you are sleepy, you can relieve fatigue. Tibetans eat milk, meat and rice dumplings as the main food, and there are few vegetables, melons and fruits on the plateau, and tea can supplement the lack of vitamins.
The production of butter tea is not complicated, first boil the tea leaves or brick tea into a thick juice, and then pour the tea into the butter tea barrel, add ghee and salt, stir the water and milk, and then pour it into the pot to heat, it becomes a fragrant butter tea.
I also asked for rice dumplings at the Snowy Area Restaurant, and when I first tasted them, I felt the same as in the book, and it was difficult to swallow. I think we can't say that the taste of rice dumplings is not good, maybe we are not used to it.
Rice dumplings are the staple food of the Tibetan people, similar to the fried noodles in the interior, which is a staple food that Tibetans must eat every day. Rice dumplings and butter tea are two famous foods of the Tibetan people. Rice dumplings are washed and fried with barley and ground, when eating rice dumplings, first put some ghee in the bowl, pour into the tea, put on the fried and finely ground barley noodles, and then use your hands to stir the noodles with the tea.
To tell the truth, Tibetan areas are generally a poor ethnic group, and it is difficult to have delicious food on the snowy plateau, and this kind of rice rake Tibetans have become a habitual staple food, and we inland people will taste it.
After an hour at the Snowy Restaurant, it was already full of wine and food, but there was still a lot of food left on the table, so I asked the waiter to pack.
I remember which travelogue said that eating in Tibet, if you can't finish eating, you can pack it up and give it to the beggars on the streets of Lhasa. I came out of the restaurant, and a group of little beggars came around to ask for money, and I gave them the packed food, and they snatched up the lunch box in my hand.
Before I came to Lhasa, according to the experience of some Tibetan travelers, I exchanged nearly 100 yuan of change, all of which were changed into 1 cent or 2 cents of change, ready to deal with the beggars in Tibet.
There are many beggars in Lhasa, and probably one of the most beggars in the cities of the country, which is probably related to the begging culture formed in Tibet for thousands of years, religious beggars are accepted by Tibetan society, and donating some goods and money to pilgrims and ascetics is considered an act of kindness and an immeasurable merit for ordinary people.
In fact, many Tibetans in Tibet live in poverty, and as a traveler, it is gratifying to give beggars some change.
The appetite of the beggars in Tibet is relatively low, and a dime and 2 cents are very satisfied, and there will be no phenomenon of pestering tourists, but if you do not pull out a dime, they will chase after you.
The sweet tea houses on the streets of Lhasa are another beautiful sight.
When I first arrived in Lhasa, I never dared to go in to drink tea, because the tea houses there were all Tibetan decorations, and some tea houses were black and rumbling, giving people a slightly terrifying feeling. Many Tibetans watched TELEVISION in the dim light while sipping sweet tea.
One day I finally had the courage to walk into a very ordinary sweet tea house, there were almost no Han Chinese, the Tibetans looked very kind and friendly, some people watched me enter, smiled and nodded, and then continued to watch their Tibetan TV very intently.
Lhasa's sweet tea is not sold by cup, it is sold by pot, 8 yuan a small thermos, two people can drink a full. When I was tired of walking around the streets of Lhasa, I walked into a sweet tea house and rested while drinking tea.
Sweet tea is generally considered to be an imported product, some say it comes from Nepal, India and other places bordering Tibet, while others say that it was brought to Tibet by the British in Europe. To this day, this question is difficult to verify, but it is an indisputable fact that sweet tea has become the main daily drink loved by Tibetan compatriots.
Speaking of which, the production process of sweet tea is also very simple, and the ingredients are not complicated, mainly milk, black tea and sugar. Add the black tea sauce to the milk and sugar, stir well and drink. Most of the tea used is bagged black tea produced in Yunnan, milk is used for fresh milk, there are also bagged milk powder, sugar is generally made of white sugar, can also use brown sugar or rock sugar.
Although the Tibetan food on the snowy plateau is not as broad and profound as the four major cuisines of Sichuan, Lusu and Guangdong, it is also very tempting for tourists who like tourism and food.