Shangrila, China: Food tastes pretty delicious at 3300 meters above sea level

Greetings from the other side of the Great Firewall of China! Life’s good on this side of the wall; Danielle has been eating entire watermelons in single sittings and ordering delivery like there’s no tomorrow. But first – here’s a short recap of a weeklong family trip to Shangrila.

Tibetan prayer flags – blue for sky, white for clouds, green for earth, red for fire, yellow for earth. It’s believed that blessings are spread each time they flutter in the wind. These flags are everywhere – outside of monasteries, temples, across the railings of bridges, strung across yards, etc.

Songzanlin Monastery 松赞林寺 – the buildings with the (real!) gold ceilings are the three main temples, and the rest of the buildings are the monks’ residences. These monks live, worship, and study here. This lake is also v important – if you’re lucky, you’re supposed to be able to see your past and future life in the reflection.

Aside from its cultural relics, Shangrila is also known for its diverse terrain and natural scenery. Here I am ruining a picture of a canyon 巴拉格宗大峡谷 that we hiked through.

On our way up a snow mountain 石卡雪山, we stopped at an amazing azalea field at 3800m above sea level. Unfortunately it was too foggy to get any good pictures from the top of the mountain, but we eventually conquered 4500m above sea level. Cable car and some good ol’ canned oxygen up the entire way, of course.

Grasslands in a national park 普达措国家公园 – mooooo.

Here’s what a typical dinner looked like.

Starting off with some 青稞饼, or highland barley bread; soft and fragrant. Its usual accompaniment is yak butter tea (not pictured), which tastes like watered-down melted butter that’s been generously salted.

The main event – 土鸡火锅 chicken hot pot. The chicken soup’s been bubbling away for hours, so by the time it gets to the table the soup is a vibrant golden color and the chicken is chopstick tender. 

Mind you, though, that when they say “chicken” they mean a whole chicken. You’ve got your usual suspects like chicken breast, drumsticks, wings, but you’ll also find liver, stomach, feet, etc. In this pot we also found the head of the chicken. Lesson on the anatomy of a chicken! The pot is brought back to a boil on a stovetop built into your table and you order accompanying dishes to cook in the soup.

A bowl of chopped scallions, sesame seeds, and chili oil. Ladle in some soup and you’ve got dipping sauce!

Some vegetables 野菜. These are not grown in gardens but foraged in the mountains, so this was my first time encountering these types of vegetables and I couldn’t tell ya what their names are.

These veggies cooked in a minute and were so good with or without the dipping sauce.

Some wood ear mushrooms 野生木耳. These are easily found in grocery stores and my grandma likes to buy dried ones in Costco quantities. The ones here, though, are fresh and had a nice crunch to them even after they were cooked. And no, they’re not gross. They’re fun guys.

Frozen tofu 冻豆腐. The texture is a lot firmer and spongier than silken tofu, allowing it to absorb more of the soup it’s cooked in.

Noodles 饵丝, a specialty from the Yunnan region. It’s made from rice and chewier than other types of noodles.

After all the vegetables have been cooked and the chicken devoured, a bowl of noodles with the flavorful broth is the perfect ending to the meal.

Just kidding there’s more. Fried yak yogurt 炸酸奶, a Tibetan specialty. 

Like deep fried Greek yogurt, but sourer. Yummy!

Most of our dinners looked like this. One night we got really creative and ordered the yak version of this meal 牦牛火锅, and by creative I mean not creative at all. Yak meat, yak butter tea, and highland barley bread are staple foods for the Shangrila locals.

A tower of meat (and tendons and bones).

I hope this was an interesting glimpse into the sheer diversity of food that China has to offer. I’m off to Beijing in 2 days for an adventure involving youth hostels, China’s high speed railways and the Forbidden Palace, so I’ll be back with more! Danielle out.

PS: I am a pescatarian for health reasons but I will eat food that’s been cooked with meat and also happily consume meat broth.