July 2, 2020

Tibetan Food in Shigatse – TRADITIONAL BREAKFAST in Tibet!

– Good morning, hope you'rehaving an amazing day.

It's Mark Wiens, I'm in Shigatse, which is one of the major cities and major areas of Tibet, with Travel China and Tibet Tours.

Today, we are gonna go on a food tour.

A local Shigatse Tibetan food tour.

We're gonna eat some ofthe local specialty food, and some street food, and some meals.

And then we're also gonnavisit the Shigatse Dzong, which is one of the mainlandmarks of Shigatse.

So we're getting started inthe old town of Shigatse.

We're gonna first try to find a family and have some local Tibetan breakfast.

(uplifting music) (laughing) We found a small, little localfamily-run Tibetan tea house where they serve traditionalTibetan breakfast, so we're gonna stop in here.

We're going to have a bite toeat to get the day started, and some butter tea.

(people speaking foreign language) Okay, come on inside of here.

Oh, cool.

Very cozy little, like, it's almost like a little dining room.

Like a little family sitting room.

(people speaking foreign language) Thank you.

(people speaking foreign language) And the family who owns this tea house said we can go to the top of their roof, whoa, cool, to get aview of the city as well.

And it opens up into like asunny patio, but enclosed patio.

(people speaking foreign language) With plants, with cactus.

(people speaking foreign language) More dried teas.

(speaking foreign language) – [Woman] This is fresh.

– [Mark] And that's butter tea? – [Woman] Yes.

– [Man] Whoops.

(woman laughing) – Tsampa is the roastedTibetan black barley which is a staple, but for breakfast, it's almost impossible to find this at a restaurant.

Everybody eats this at homeand so yeah, it's very hard to find at restaurants.

I mean, this is a teahouse but very, very local and this is their home, sothey might not even serve this at the tea house, but we're in their house and so they offered to make this for us 'cause this is what wewanted to eat for breakfast.

Oh, she's making them into big dumplings.

First took some of the Tsampa flour which is the roasted barleyflour and then mixed in a little bit of yak cheeseand that's sugar, right? You mixed in some sugar aswell, as well as like an entire block of dzo butter and dzois the cross between a yak and a cow so that's like also one of the most common types of butter.

So then, you mix that inand then they put it into this little skin, usuallyis like a yak skin pouch, but I think this one might be cloth.

Uh, anyway, you really massage that in, like he really worked that butter.

Because it's all cold, workedthat butter into the flour, into the other ingredients andshe really like squeezed it, almost in that pouch, shealmost wrings it like a towel to make these reallytight, tight kind of like dough dumplings of uncooked bread kind of.

It does not get more local thanthat for Tibetan breakfast.

The simplicity, yet the processand yeah, you can see that.

It's solid because sheliterally like a towel, wrings it out with that dough.

Wow! That Tsampa, it is thick.

It is hardy.

Yeah, it's buttery too.

The cheese just giveslike a mild taste to it.

The sugar, because the sugar is so coarse, you kind of almost crunch on the sugar but just a light sweetness to balance.

Not very sweet.

Because it's like that uncooked dough, so it sort of sticks to theroof of your mouth a little bit.

You need to, I think, drinkbutter tea along with it.

Oh, that's good.

That is a real Tibetan, likehighland, high-elevation food, that's for sure, you can just sense it.

– This, this, this and then we drink.

– So three times? – Yes, three times andthe finger should be this.

The finger.

– Like this? – Thumb out.

– Thumb out, just this finger.

– Only this.

– So, this is what Dolma wassaying is you traditionally, you kinda flick it out?- Yes, put in.

– Put it in the butter tea.

– And use the thumb.

– And use the thumb.

– Offering.

First, okay.

– One.

– Two.

– Two.

And then three.

– Yes.

– And now we can drink the butter tea.

(slurping) Oh, I love the butter tea.

Oh, that one is good.

Oh, that's rich and creamyand salty and soupy.

Uncle just went downstairsand he brought us some of the chili sauceto eat with the Tsampa.

And, yeah, it includes thedried chili which they mash into a paste and then (foreign language) (Dolma speaking foreign language) (Mark speaking foreign language) Which is an herb from the mountains.

That's also included in there.

It almost looks like pineneedles, we're gonna add that.

Okay, add a little bit of this.

– Oh!(speaking foreign language) (laughing)- Spicy? Really spicy? – Yes! – Mm.

– Really hot.

– Oh, that flavor though.

It's like the dried chili and that herb, it does taste kinda likeevergreen tree a little bit.

And at the same time, it's kindof, what could that herb be? Smells like a pine tree.

I'm loving it.

What a combination, yeah, because that chili and the evergreen.

Yeah, okay, you gottachase that with butter tea 'cause that kind of sticks to your mouth.

(Uncle laughing) The butter and the Tsampa, whoa.

That chili sauce justlike, that bumps it up.

That chili sauce is just amazing.

Oh! And like the crumbly-ness of it.

Oh! That is like the carbohydratesand fat that you need in the morning in Tibet.

And wash it down.

While that was good, I had just two of those Tsampa dumplings.

Those are heavy.

That's the ultimate powergranola bar Tibetan breakfast.

It literally is like, I mean, a solid lump of just flour and butter that's justgonna rise in your stomach.

I washed that down with atleast three cups of butter tea.

I'm feeling like I have energy to conquer this high altitude.

We are on our way toexplore more of Shigatse! Okay, so right at the base.

We made it to the base of the Dzong, but right at the base of theDzong, there's a local market.

Um, lots and lots of fresh, actually kind of like half-dried meat.

These are sheep.

(upbeat music) Actually at this market, it's mostly sheep.

Hello! But then there's some yak meatas well and now I'm moving into some more likethese are not souvenirs, but they're more like religious symbols and religious prayer beads and bells and things that people use.

Yeah, there's all sorts ofdaily necessities at this market from wooden bowls forbutter tea to nail clippers to Tibetan shoes to jewelry to food.

(exciting music) (speaking foreign language) Okay, we're stopping.

This man is on kind of amotor bike cart and he has this big pot of this, it'smade from beans as well as oil.

Do you know what type of beans it is? – [Dolma] He said it's kind ofbean which is a black color.

– Oh, like a type of black-colored beans.

And it makes this huge panof this kind of like wiggly, wiggly thing and then heslices it off into a bag and then you add chili sauce.

These are some massivechunks, massive slices and these little toothpicks.

That is a little wobbly.

Okay, here's a smaller piece.

There we go.

This is one of those timeswhere you hope to get it to your mouth before itfalls out of the toothpick.

Mm.

It's jiggly, a little bitstarchy, but really light and blobby and then youhave that chili sauce.

Mm, that makes it tasty.

It's kind of like a bean jelly.

It looks like a lot, but youcould definitely eat it all because it's very light.

Oh!(laughing) I tried to take a bite andit just slid out of my mouth.

It's jello-y, that's for sure.

I think there might be somespring onions in there as well.

(folk music) I might take back the lightness factor.

It's light at first, but it gets heavy.

Um, that's a good littlesnack and we're now moving onto the main monastery ofShigatse where we're gonna do a little hike above the monastery.

We're beginning the hikenow through the alley, but we're gonna go up themountain and this monastery, it's huge, it's sprawling! We'll learn more about itas we continue to go up, but again just a reminder, make sure you wear sunglasses, make sure you wear a hat.

I'm even wearing my hood alittle bit to block the sun because this sun, like literally, you can just feel the sun like bubbling.

You feel blisters forming onyour skin that touches the sun because it's so strong, it'sso harsh even if it's cold.

This is yak hair.

And then right behind methen this is the first stupa and then there's almost prayer wheels kind of going all the way up.

You can just see in the mountains as well, you can see the prayerflags just covering, especially from peak to peak.

Yeah, it's a very goodthing I ate that breakfast, that Tsampa.

That's what's in the butter tea.

That's what's powering me now.

(breathing hard) And we're getting up closer to the top of the monastery, I believe.

(upbeat music) I think we made it to the top here.

There's kind of a rocky areaand this is like the back side of the wall of the monastery.

So, maybe not really a viewof the monastery from here, but we're get another view, maybe from the other side or from below, but it wasvery cool to walk around it.

(speaking foreign language) Ah! So, most people mash it a little bit.

– Yeah, we believe that salt, butter, tea will come more.

– Ah.

– So we believe in everything.

Lot of people come here, they do this.

(speaking foreign language) – Okay, and here we go at the top here.

This is the view overthe entire monastery.

It is huge and vast andjust like covers almost like amphitheater basin ofthe mountain and the rock.

Wow! There's so many buildings.

Wow, and just surrounded by the plateau.

(exciting music) Well, we made it down fromthe hike and before we go into the monastery becausethe monastery is still closed I believe for lunch, we'regonna have lunch ourselves.

We're stopping at a restauranthere, Tibetan restaurant.

Oh yeah, that's the yak wool blanket.

That's heavy! Come on inside, whoa! Big Tibetan restaurant.

Whoa, like a big family restaurant, nice! I'm loving it in here already.

The natural light, the sofas, the colors.

The colors, as always, and notforgetting the Tibetan sofa dining situation as always as well.

These are like bucket seats, nice! We just ordered up someof this restaurant's Tibetan food specialties, some of their very meaty specialties.

And they are now reallybumping that karaoke! (speaking foreign language) So, two of the main meatdishes have arrived.

One is a sausage that's madefrom the sheep intestines and then filled with Tsampa which is the, we already had some today but it was just the Tibetan roasted barley.

And so, that looks very hardy.

That's like more than just a sausage.

That's an all carb meatintestine roll up all in one.

And then another dish thatI haven't tried so far.

Tibetan food that's verypopular is sheep lungs, fried sheep lungs andit's kinda fried down with some peppers and someonions and kinda like bubbly.

That looks really good.

And some chili sauce to go with it.

Have to begin with that sausage.

Look it, you can just seeactually the grains of the barley.

That has some texture toit, some gritty texture, and then just wrappedup in sheep intestines.

It's almost like bread.

Mm! Yeah, it is like bread, but wrapped in intestines with a bit of irony, meaty taste to it.

That really is a lot of Tsampathough, a lot of barley.

Though and I'm not sure if it's fried, but then it kinda just liketurns into crumbly meat bread.

That's good! It'd be even better with some chili sauce, but we gotta try those lungs first.

Okay, next up for the fried sheep lungs.

Mm! Oh, that's incredible! Oh yeah! It's a little ironytasting, a little sheepy, but the texture is wonderful.

It's a little bit not rubbery at all, very soft, very tender.

It has that fried crust aroundit and then kind of like actually a very softtexture, a very soft texture.

I mean, it has a lungtexture, that's for sure.

Oh cool, this is the one.

This is like one of the maindishes we wanted to try here in Shigatse which is the Shigatse shapale.

Oh, is this one the shapato? Shapale?- Shapale.

– Shapale which is like afried dough with yak inside, definitely yak inside andthat is puffy and fried.

That looks so crispy.

Okay, we got a few more dishes that I didn't even realize were coming.

Dolma hooked it up.

It's yak meat, I think it'sradish and then the little, oh yeah, these are small little guys.

Filled with yak as well.

They're sliders, slippery.

Mm! Oh, that juices with yak.

It has some kind of a herb inside it.

Kinda taste like thatmountain herb that was in that chili sauce, a kind of evergreen.

(slurping) And I think these little dumplings would be really gooddipped in the chili sauce.

They're slippery.

You kinda gotta scoopthem, but if you wanna dip, you gotta make sure you havea firm grip or maybe I'll just like actually just stickit into the chili sauce.

Mm! Oh, that chili sauce, that's so good.

It's like not even that salty, but just a nice chili sauce.

Again, and this is one isthe shapale, the fried bread.

I'm gonna maybe break it in half.

Boy, that's kinda oily.

The yak juices are flowing.

Oh, and there's mincedyak on the inside, okay! Maybe break another piece off? And kind of feel theoil squeezing out of it.

Mm.

Kind of like a chewy bread.

But, it's thicker in someareas because of that ribbon and it is kinda oily, kinda tasty.

Maybe I'll try some ofthat tomato sauce with it.

And that yak meat inside of the shapale is almost kind of like caramelized.

(upbeat music) Mm.

Oh, that tomato sauce.

It's really vibrant and really tangy! And with a meatiness toit, the yak meat in there.

But that's a very simple, just taste like pureed tomato.

Okay, this is a big bite of sheep Tsampa.

With the chili sauce.

That's good, yeah, it really is.

It just crumples like, whatis that type of bread called? Um, that kind of like darkishbread, like a rye bread! It's like a sheep rye bread.

That is filling though.

Definitely a lot of animaltastes in this meal.

From the lungs to the sheep to the yak.

It's good though.

It's like wow! This food will fill you up fast.

(uplifting music) Chase that with a lung or two.

Then, you got the full sheeptexture in your mouth at once.

Ah! Again, this is the pointin the meal where you need to lean back and fully utilizethe Tibetan sofa seating.

That dough is starting torise in my stomach, expanding.

The lungs too.

Oh, that was a rich meal, wow! Okay, we finished with lunch.

That was a very, very heavy lunch and now we are at the monastery.

The monastery is calledTashilhunpo Monastery and from what I understand, this is the seat of the second after the Dalai Lama andso it's an entire complex of students, of places, ofchapels, of assembly halls, of chapels, of tombs andyeah, as we saw already, it just stretches throughthe entire kind of like basin of the mountain, and sowe're gonna walk around.

We're gonna tour around the monastery now.

And Dolma mentioned thatit is the winter palace of the Panchen Lama, somost of the bottom level of the monastery are monks' accommodation and students' housing.

Most of the bottom roomsand buildings and alleys are yeah, like living quarters, but we're continuing up to some of the other assemblyhalls, I think, and places.

This is a very cool typeof tree with branches and look at this stump.

But, the unique thing aboutit is it only grows over 4, 000 meters and I think we'reright at 4, 000 meters here.

And we're stepping into achapel where there, I believe, is a huge, okay, a huge statueof Buddha, 270 kilos of gold, 79 kilos of gold.

230, 000 kilos of copper.

Okay, and no photos or videos inside.

This is just the entrance, entrance way.

Whoa, that was huge, massive.

Okay, moving on! Next, we're stepping into The Tenth Panchen Lama's Tomb Stupa.

Wow, this is impressive.

Stepped through the entryway and then it's like multi-layered tiers and thisis with the golden roof.

And so much maybe copper? Which is reflecting off the sun.

Mainly we're visiting alot of the tomb stupas, so this is at The Fourth Panchen Lama.

I got this.

These are cool staircases.

Okay, this is where thecurrent Panchen Lama lives.

This is his palace duringthe winter especially and what's interestingabout this to me is that on the bottom, the ground floor, is the grain barley storage.

Like all of it, we're standingon the grain barley storage which there's ladder stepsthat goes down but then there's also, if you walk, youhear your feet really stick because they've put yakbutter on this entire floor to make it very slip-proof.

Ah, very sticky.

You can hear that on your shoes.

(exciting music) And that's gonna wrap up thisTibetan food tour of Shigatse as well as visiting themonastery and walking around, hiking around.

It was another amazing day and actually this is the final video.

This is gonna wrap upthis entire Tibetan food and travel video series.

If you haven't seen all ofthe videos, I'll have the link in the description box below, but from Lhasa to Yamdrok Lake to Shigatse, be sure tocheck out all of the videos, watch all the videos.

Tibet has been just exceededmy expectations in terms of people, culture, thebeauty, the natural scenery, the people.

I said that again but thatdeserves twice and the food.

But, the people are so cool.

This environment, thisaltitude, it really is not an easy life, especiallyin the countryside.

They're such amazing peopleand to me what stands out about the food the most iseating at people's homes.

The restaurants, they'regood, they're okay, but the real beauty ofTibetan food and culture is at people's homes.

Ah, that's where the best food is.

That's where the traditionalfood is and that's what I will remember the most, that standsout the most about this trip to Tibet, so yeah.

I wanna say a huge thankyou to Travel China Tibet.

They invited me to Tibet.

You need to be on a tour andthey invited me to Tibet.

They organized everything.

To me, they really, exactly what I wanted to do because I wanted tolearn about the culture, I wanted to go to people's homes and they catered perfectlyto that, so huge thank you.

I will have their linkin the description box.

Thank you, Bruce.

Thank you, Qu and Dolmafor guiding us around, but it was really an honor tohave a chance to visit Tibet and truly the rooftopof the world and it is.

Wow! Okay, and that brings us tothe end of this video series.

Thanks again for watching.

Be sure to give this video a thumbs up and make sure you subscribe.

I'm gonna be publishing lotsmore food and travel videos and also turn on your bellicon, click the bell icon.

Thanks again for watching.

Goodbye from Shigatse, Tibet.

I'll see you on the next video.

.

                  Â