- Good morning, hope you're
having 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 of
the local specialty food, and some street food, and some meals. And then we're also gonna
visit the Shigatse Dzong, which is one of the main
landmarks of Shigatse. So we're getting started in
the 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 local
family-run Tibetan tea house where they serve traditional
Tibetan breakfast, so we're gonna stop in here. We're going to have a bite to
eat 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 a
view of the city as well. And it opens up into like a
sunny 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 roasted
Tibetan black barley which is a staple, but for breakfast,
it's almost impossible to find this at a restaurant. Everybody eats this at home
and so yeah, it's very hard to find at restaurants. I mean, this is a tea
house but very, very local and this is their home, so
they 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 we
wanted to eat for breakfast. Oh, she's making them into big dumplings. First took some of the Tsampa flour which is the roasted barley
flour and then mixed in a little bit of yak cheese
and that's sugar, right? You mixed in some sugar as
well, as well as like an entire block of dzo butter and dzo
is 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 in
and then they put it into this little skin, usually
is 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, worked
that butter into the flour, into the other ingredients and
she really like squeezed it, almost in that pouch, she
almost wrings it like a towel to make these really
tight, tight kind of like dough dumplings of uncooked bread kind of. It does not get more local than
that for Tibetan breakfast. The simplicity, yet the process
and yeah, you can see that. It's solid because she
literally 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 gives
like 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 the
roof of your mouth a little bit. You need to, I think, drink
butter tea along with it. Oh, that's good. That is a real Tibetan, like
highland, 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 and
the finger should be this. The finger. - Like this? - Thumb out. - Thumb out, just this finger. - Only this. - So, this is what Dolma was
saying 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 creamy
and salty and soupy. Uncle just went downstairs
and he brought us some of the chili sauce
to eat with the Tsampa. And, yeah, it includes the
dried 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 pine
needles, 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 like
evergreen tree a little bit. And at the same time, it's kind
of, 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 gotta
chase that with butter tea 'cause that kind of sticks to your mouth. (Uncle laughing) The butter and the Tsampa, whoa. That chili sauce just
like, that bumps it up. That chili sauce is just amazing. Oh! And like the crumbly-ness of it. Oh! That is like the carbohydrates
and 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 power
granola bar Tibetan breakfast. It literally is like, I mean,
a solid lump of just flour and butter that's just
gonna rise in your stomach. I washed that down with at
least three cups of butter tea. I'm feeling like I have energy to conquer this high altitude. We are on our way to
explore more of Shigatse! Okay, so right at the base. We made it to the base of the Dzong, but right at the base of the
Dzong, 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 meat
as well and now I'm moving into some more like
these 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 of
daily necessities at this market from wooden bowls for
butter 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 a
motor bike cart and he has this big pot of this, it's
made from beans as well as oil. Do you know what type of beans it is? - [Dolma] He said it's kind of
bean which is a black color. - Oh, like a type of black-colored beans. And it makes this huge pan
of this kind of like wiggly, wiggly thing and then he
slices it off into a bag and then you add chili sauce. These are some massive
chunks, 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 times
where you hope to get it to your mouth before it
falls out of the toothpick. Mm. It's jiggly, a little bit
starchy, but really light and blobby and then you
have that chili sauce. Mm, that makes it tasty. It's kind of like a bean jelly. It looks like a lot, but you
could definitely eat it all because it's very light. Oh!
(laughing) I tried to take a bite and
it just slid out of my mouth. It's jello-y, that's for sure. I think there might be some
spring 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 little
snack and we're now moving onto the main monastery of
Shigatse where we're gonna do a little hike above the monastery. We're beginning the hike
now through the alley, but we're gonna go up the
mountain and this monastery, it's huge, it's sprawling! We'll learn more about it
as 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 a
little bit to block the sun because this sun, like literally, you can just feel the sun like bubbling. You feel blisters forming on
your skin that touches the sun because it's so strong, it's
so harsh even if it's cold. This is yak hair. And then right behind me
then 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 prayer
flags just covering, especially from peak to peak. Yeah, it's a very good
thing 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 area
and this is like the back side of the wall of the monastery. So, maybe not really a view
of the monastery from here, but we're get another view,
maybe from the other side or from below, but it was
very 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 over
the entire monastery. It is huge and vast and
just like covers almost like amphitheater basin of
the mountain and the rock. Wow! There's so many buildings. Wow, and just surrounded by the plateau. (exciting music) Well, we made it down from
the hike and before we go into the monastery because
the monastery is still closed I believe for lunch, we're
gonna have lunch ourselves. We're stopping at a restaurant
here, 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 not
forgetting the Tibetan sofa dining situation as always as well. These are like bucket seats, nice! We just ordered up some
of this restaurant's Tibetan food specialties, some of their very meaty specialties. And they are now really
bumping that karaoke! (speaking foreign language) So, two of the main meat
dishes have arrived. One is a sausage that's made
from 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 meat
intestine roll up all in one. And then another dish that
I haven't tried so far. Tibetan food that's very
popular is sheep lungs, fried sheep lungs and
it's kinda fried down with some peppers and some
onions 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 see
actually the grains of the barley. That has some texture to
it, some gritty texture, and then just wrapped
up 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 Tsampa
though, a lot of barley. Though and I'm not sure if it's fried, but then it kinda just like
turns 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 irony
tasting, 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 around
it and then kind of like actually a very soft
texture, a very soft texture. I mean, it has a lung
texture, that's for sure. Oh cool, this is the one. This is like one of the main
dishes we wanted to try here in Shigatse which is the Shigatse shapale. Oh, is this one the shapato? Shapale?
- Shapale. - Shapale which is like a
fried dough with yak inside, definitely yak inside and
that 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's
radish 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 that
mountain herb that was in that chili sauce, a kind of evergreen. (slurping) And I think these little dumplings would be really good
dipped in the chili sauce. They're slippery. You kinda gotta scoop
them, but if you wanna dip, you gotta make sure you have
a firm grip or maybe I'll just like actually just stick
it 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 is
the 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 minced
yak on the inside, okay! Maybe break another piece off? And kind of feel the
oil squeezing out of it. Mm. Kind of like a chewy bread. But, it's thicker in some
areas because of that ribbon and it is kinda oily, kinda tasty. Maybe I'll try some of
that 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 to
it, 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, what
is that type of bread called? Um, that kind of like darkish
bread, like a rye bread! It's like a sheep rye bread. That is filling though. Definitely a lot of animal
tastes 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 sheep
texture in your mouth at once. Ah! Again, this is the point
in the meal where you need to lean back and fully utilize
the Tibetan sofa seating. That dough is starting to
rise 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 called
Tashilhunpo Monastery and from what I understand,
this is the seat of the second after the Dalai Lama and
so it's an entire complex of students, of places, of
chapels, of assembly halls, of chapels, of tombs and
yeah, as we saw already, it just stretches through
the entire kind of like basin of the mountain, and so
we're gonna walk around. We're gonna tour around the monastery now. And Dolma mentioned that
it is the winter palace of the Panchen Lama, so
most of the bottom level of the monastery are monks' accommodation and students' housing. Most of the bottom rooms
and buildings and alleys are yeah, like living quarters,
but we're continuing up to some of the other assembly
halls, I think, and places. This is a very cool type
of tree with branches and look at this stump. But, the unique thing about
it is it only grows over 4,000 meters and I think we're
right at 4,000 meters here. And we're stepping into a
chapel where there, I believe, is a huge, okay, a huge statue
of 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 entry
way and then it's like multi-layered tiers and this
is with the golden roof. And so much maybe copper? Which is reflecting off the sun. Mainly we're visiting a
lot of the tomb stupas, so this is at The Fourth Panchen Lama. I got this. These are cool staircases. Okay, this is where the
current Panchen Lama lives. This is his palace during
the winter especially and what's interesting
about this to me is that on the bottom, the ground floor, is the grain barley storage. Like all of it, we're standing
on the grain barley storage which there's ladder steps
that goes down but then there's also, if you walk, you
hear your feet really stick because they've put yak
butter 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 this
Tibetan food tour of Shigatse as well as visiting the
monastery and walking around, hiking around. It was another amazing day and actually this is the final video. This is gonna wrap up
this entire Tibetan food and travel video series. If you haven't seen all of
the videos, I'll have the link in the description box below,
but from Lhasa to Yamdrok Lake to Shigatse, be sure to
check out all of the videos, watch all the videos. Tibet has been just exceeded
my expectations in terms of people, culture, the
beauty, the natural scenery, the people. I said that again but that
deserves twice and the food. But, the people are so cool. This environment, this
altitude, it really is not an easy life, especially
in the countryside. They're such amazing people
and to me what stands out about the food the most is
eating at people's homes. The restaurants, they're
good, they're okay, but the real beauty of
Tibetan food and culture is at people's homes. Ah, that's where the best food is. That's where the traditional
food is and that's what I will remember the most, that stands
out the most about this trip to Tibet, so yeah. I wanna say a huge thank
you to Travel China Tibet. They invited me to Tibet. You need to be on a tour and
they invited me to Tibet. They organized everything. To me, they really,
exactly what I wanted to do because I wanted to
learn about the culture, I wanted to go to people's homes and they catered perfectly
to that, so huge thank you. I will have their link
in the description box. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you, Qu and Dolma
for guiding us around, but it was really an honor to
have a chance to visit Tibet and truly the rooftop
of the world and it is. Wow! Okay, and that brings us to
the 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 lots
more food and travel videos and also turn on your bell
icon, click the bell icon. Thanks again for watching. Goodbye from Shigatse, Tibet. I'll see you on the next video.
It might just be my misophonia, but the way this guy chews and talks while he is eating is incredibly irritating. I think the video itself is great, but the smacking of the lips and the sound of him talking while eating is just horrific.
I thought this was Mark. He seems like a nice guy but god damn the closeups of his face when he eats is so weird. The eyes, the smile, the way he says “oh wow”. Just strange.