Local cuisine anywhere usually develops as the result of the environment in which people live, and so the Tibetans in Jiuzhaigou Valley eat dishes that are quite different from traditional Sichuan food:

 

 

A staple food of Tibetans prepared with barley flour as well as pea and oat powder. Tibetans bring the Zanba cake wherever they go, to farm, to graze and to travel. It is a convenient fast food, especially welcome in sparsely populated and fuel-scarce areas.  

 

Butter tea

 

Its main ingredients are butter and milk as well as walnut kernel, peanut and sesame, egg and salt, being stirred in a barrel, then mixed with boiled tea and red coloring matter. After being stirred for a few seconds, a fragrant barrel of buttered tea is ready. It is poured into a big kettle and kept warm on a stove for drinking.

 

Yacha tea  

 

Selected from large tealeaves, it is produced in Yan Prefecture. Tibetans eat frequent meals but few vegetables or fruits and Yan tea offers a type of vitamin supplement and is also an ingredient that is added to buttered tea for a strong and authentic flavor.  

 

Qingke barley liquor  

 

Served as a treat on important occasions and for guests. To make this liquor, barley is washed and steamed, and then fermented for a couple of days. When it appears yellowish and tastes sweet, it is ready to drink. It is also called Tibetan beer.  

 

Flour sliced with picked cabbage  

 

A traditional Tibetan food. Pickled-cabbage soup is cooked and then mixed with flour slices and bacon chops or fresh yak meat slices, potato slices, as well as shallot and salt.

 

Blood sausage  

 

Offered to honor distinguished guests. This nutritious and tasty food is made of blood, spices, yak meat or pork, all wrapped in an intestine like a Western sausage.  

 

Qingke barley cake  

 

Baked from qingke barley flour, it looks golden and tastes delicious.  

 

Yak meat  

 

Preserved in sauce and other ingredients, it is cut into slices and prepared as a salad with hot pepper powder. Goes well with liquor. There is a factory in Jiuzhaigou that produces and vacuum-packs fast-food yak meat for your convenience to buy as a gift.

 

Buckwheat noodle  

 

Buckwheat flour can be made into steamed bread and noodles that are good for your health and taste delicious. A bowl of buckwheat noodles served with a cold dish is typical Tibetan cuisine.

 

Potato Zanba Cake  

 

First cook the potato and then peel it and smash it into dry paste. Cut the paste into slices and cook them with pickled cabbage and, of course, with hot pepper or honey.