This is a cultural and visual feast providing a fascinating insight into Tibetan cuisine. The recipes have been traditionally handed down and made in Yeshi Jampa’s family, coming largely from Eastern Tibet. Many of recipes are on the menu at the couple’s Taste Tibet restaurant.
These recipes feature many iconic flavours and ingredients, including Sichuan peppercorns (yerma), turmeric and cumin and plenty of aromatics such as ginger, garlic and coriander. Traditionally, much of the Tibetan diet is based on barley, or wheat, with bread being an accompaniment to a main meal. So there are a number of recipes to try, including Numtak Balep (Fried Breakfast bread) or Tingmo or Balep. Tibetans use chilli (sepen) or hot chilli dip together with key ingredients. There are also Sichuan peppercorns sauces. You can make these and pair them with momos (Tibetan dumplings) or sha balep (Tibetan pastries). The authors recommend you make a batch of Taste Tibet sepen before attempting anything else in the book. I did!
Hearty noodles, soups, and stews are the centre of everyday Tibetan cooking – good, old fashioned comfort food. Traditionally these provide the necessary fuel for winter. We’re encouraged to try Thenthuk, a hand-pulled noodle soup usually served at dinner time which can be made with beef or vegetables.
There are traditional breakfast dishes, including various teas and Tsampa, a number of classic restaurant dishes as well as traditional sweets made during Losar or Tibetan New Year. I highly enjoyed reading and cooking from Taste Tibet.
Reviewed by Karen Williams
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Julie and Yeshi are the owners of Taste Tibet, a restaurant and food stall based in Oxford, UK. They cater at big events such as Glastonbury, Latitude and the Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival, and their restaurant has been celebrated in the BBC Food Awards (2021) and Observer Food Awards (2022).
Julie grew up in London and began her travels in Asia at the age of 17. She studied Chinese at Cambridge University and lived in Beijing for many years. She is the Chief Editor of the Oxford Chinese Dictionary.
Yeshi grew up in Tibet. He herded livestock out on the plateau for six months of every year, living in a tent made from yak hair and learning to cook at young age. When he was nineteen he walked across the Himalayas to India, where he went to school for the first time.
Julie and Yeshi met in Dharamsala in northern India. They share a passion for food and wellbeing, and have been writing about Tibetan life and food culture since 2016. In 2019 Julie won the Yan-Kit So Award for Food Writers on Asia.
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