Tibetan restaurants in Tibetan areas are all the same, and most of them have only a few kinds of food with no more than ten fingers. As for the taste, unless you have my strong willpower of "the Red Army is not afraid of expedition" and can walk out of the restaurant with a smile after eating three meals, you can join me in the Long March. See 17 for Tibetan food.
Andono is headquartered in the center of Lhasa, not far from Barkhor Street of Jokhang Temple. Compared with ordinary Tibetan restaurants, the facade of Andono is much more magnificent, with dragons and phoenixes carved on the doors and signs written in Tibetan, English and Chinese. There are three domains in Tibetan areas, namely, "legal domain to protect Tibet, Ma domain Amdo, and human domain Kangba". Most of Ann is in the northeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the core area is Qinghai. Therefore, the name of "Amdo Ruozeng" is similar to "Qinghai Hotel". I'm just guessing. I don't understand what Nozeng means.
This shop is quite big. There are boxes on the second floor and Tibetan hot pot on the third floor. The lobby on the first floor is magnificent, with benches and long tables in Tibetan restaurant style, made of heavy solid wood and exquisite workmanship. The waiters are all young boys and girls, with light steps and gentle attitude, which is much better than ordinary Tibetan restaurants.
Liu is familiar with this place, so he ordered some specialties of his family. I don't remember how much it cost to check out later. It's quite affordable anyway. Tibetan restaurants are not cheating.
This is a western knife and fork. First, put the Amdo yak covered cake into a thick pot, heat it below, spread the cooked potatoes, onions and fried beef slices, and then cover it with a layer of cake. After serving, the clerk chopped and stirred the cake with a knife and fork on the spot.
This dish tastes good. The beef is tender, much better than the firewood yak meat I used to eat. Potatoes are delicious, and bread is soft and fragrant after absorbing soup. But I think this is a modern dish, just like the three-sauce stew pot that was once popular in Chinese mainland.
The other is ghee ginseng fruit that I have never seen before. At first I thought it was chickpea, but later I saw it was a very small rhizome, like a miniature version of sweet potato. Later, I searched the Internet to find out that this is Potentilla anserina, a herb growing on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and ginseng fruit is the root of Potentilla anserina. Because it looks like a gourd, it is called ginseng fruit. It turns out that ginseng fruit is so pocket-sized, no wonder Pig Bajie swallowed it in one gulp and didn't know what it tasted like.
We can't learn Bajie, so we chew it carefully. How can I put it? It's pink, slightly sweet, that's all. Interestingly, crispy ginseng fruit with a plate of fried noodles is the most traditional staple food in Tibet. The flour ground from highland barley is called Bazin. When eating, sprinkle bazin on the dish and mix it together.
I didn't understand this way of eating at that time. Later, as I continued to travel in the hinterland of Tibetan areas, I wanted to know the origin of this dish. Take a bowl of Baba (fried noodles), add a piece of ghee, throw some so-called ginseng fruit, reach in and knead it into a ball. This is the way to eat Baba. The crispy ginseng fruit in front of me, sprinkled with Bazin, is like mixing sugar, just like pouring two or two noodles into half a catty of scallion oil to make scallion noodles. The priorities are completely reversed.
And tomato beef sauce. When I ordered this dish, I felt quite uneasy and thought it was the most traditional Tibetan raw beef sauce. It is said that it is mashed with fresh beef and mixed with Chili powder, ginger and garlic. People who have never touched them risk diarrhea. The result is tomato beef soup. Although it tastes good, it also makes me a little disappointed.
Looking at this green spinach, I am surprised. Ordinary Tibetan restaurants have never cooked, and green leafy vegetables can't be grown on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. I was puzzled when I saw it. The young man who served insisted that spinach originated in Lhasa. Does spinach really produce plateau resistance genes? Or is the vegetable greenhouse technology in Lhasa already so strong?
A pot of buttered tea, of course. This is my favorite Tibetan drink. The milk tea that tourists prefer is not a Tibetan tradition at all. It has obviously spread from Britain to India, and then to Hongkong, Taiwan Province Province and Tibet. The popularity of milk tea in Chinese mainland is influenced by the culture of Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The food in Andono is very satisfactory. The taste of several dishes is really good, and the life of ascetic monks for many days is also very difficult. While eating, I wondered if these three dishes and one soup were traditional Tibetan food. You must be soberly aware that it is doubtful whether you can eat "local" dishes that suit your taste in a distant land.
Except sesame spinach, other dishes have Tibetan regional style in tableware, style and taste, but I think it is not so traditional. Buttered ginseng fruit is the localization of Tibetan food, and beef covered cakes and beef soup are more like western food. In fact, when you walk into a restaurant, you can expect it. Looking up, the waiters in the lobby are all Han people. Andono Zeng is a tourist restaurant, and the consumer group is not Tibetans in Lhasa.
So after eating this meal, I didn't know what high-end Tibetan food was. Just like a European tourist in China, he eats popular fast food from Lamian Noodles and McDonald's every day. One day, he walked into a three-sauce stew pot shop, where onions, potatoes, beef, chicken wings, prawns and tomatoes were all delicious. What would he say about this so-called high-end Chinese food? Anyone who knows how to cook should know that the three-sauce stew pot is a new dish that has emerged in recent years. In fact, it is a typical European stew, which uses soy sauce, soy sauce and oyster sauce from China instead of European sauce. Excuse me, is this vest three-sauce simmer pot high-grade Chinese food or western food?
After traveling in Tibet for more than two months, I have to step into Tibetan restaurants almost every day, and I still don't know what high-end Tibetan food is. Although most Tibetans don't pay attention to eating and drinking, high-end Tibetan food definitely exists. In the past, nobles in Tibet lived in luxury. A hundred years ago, they drank red wine with knives and forks. Maybe next time I go to Tibet, this puzzle will be solved.
Wandering around Lhasa, I walked into a farmer's market. The photo below says it was taken in any city in the mainland, and no one will ask questions. The local spinach in Zena, Anno may grow here, right?
With the development of economy and the blending of nationalities, will high-end and traditional Tibetan food be melted by Sichuan cuisine?
During my travels in recent years, I have been looking for the local traditional diet. In fact, even in the mainland, how many places can you meet high-end and traditional Chinese food? Catering always keeps pace with the times, and there is no need to stick to tradition, just like no one will wear high-end dresses and coats again, unless it is to make money for acting.