Tibetan Cuisine

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With much of the country at high altitude and struggling with poverty, most of the Tibetan diet is limited to a few key crops and meats that make up a short list of staple foods, often filling and warming.

Although much of the Tibetan food found in McLeod Ganj, the home of the Dalai Lama in India, is vegetarian, meats such as yak and mutton are common parts of the Tibetan diet. As with much of the world, easy-to-grow potatoes often find their way into stews. Yak products such as butter, cheese, and yogurt are highly prized for both their taste and health benefits.

Tibetan cuisine includes the culinary traditions and practices of Tibet and its peoples, many of whom have found refuge in India and Nepal.It reflects the Tibetan landscape of mountains and plateaus and includes influences from neighbours (including China, India and Nepal).It is known for its use of noodles, goat, yak, mutton, dumplings, Tibetan cheeses (often from yak or goat milk), butter and soups. Sepen is a Tibetan hot sauce.

Sepen

Source from google image

Tibetan crops must be able grow at the high altitudes, although a few areas in Tibet are low enough to grow such crops as rice, oranges, bananas, and lemon. The most important crop in Tibet is barley. Flour milled from roasted barley, called Tsampa, is the staple food of Tibet, as well as Sha Phaley (meat and cabbage in bread). Balep is Tibetan bread eaten for breakfast and lunch. There are various other types of balep bread and fried pies. 

Sha Paley

Source from google image

Thukpa

Source from google image

Thukpa a dinner staple. It consists of noodles of various shapes, vegetables, and meat in broth. Tibetan cuisine is traditionally served with bamboo chopsticks, in contrast to other Himalayan cuisines which are eaten by hand. Small soup bowls are also used by Tibetans, and the rich are known to have used bowls of gold and silver.