Yak fried noodles
Momos (yak dumplings) and thikpu (noodles) was what we ate our last night in Xiahe. As one author puts it, 'the Tibetans are not known for their cuisine." Indeed, because of the high altitude and water doesn't even boil, it's hard to cook anything. That morning at breakfast, it was impossible to get a second cup of coffee. They can't get the water to boil and they simply ignored our request for a second cup of coffee. Most Tibetans eat roasted barley which they call 'tsampa.' Barley is the only crop that can grow in those altitudes and they roast it and grind it into a flour. So all they need to do is to mix it with yak butter or put it into their yak butter tea and eat it as a gruel. No cooking is required since the barley has been roasted. The Tibetans are now scattered all over the world and the Himalayas that someone asked, 'who is a Tibetan? The reply, 'the tsampa eaters.'
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