A Texan in Tibet - Food

"I am not a picky eater. I just prefer pleasing my taste buds first."
-Yuno Mi

 

I'm not what most would call a picky eater, although I certainly have my preferences. For example, I avoid all organ meat and generally don't like fish, and I'll eat most any vegetable except mushrooms.  As a meat n' taters kinda guy, my palate is best described as unsophisticated.

By the time I depart, I will have spent January through early April eating a mostly low-carb/Mediterranean-ish diet and I will have avoided alcohol and processed sugars. I sure do miss bread!  Judith Viorst once wrote "Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces." I would like to be able to proclaim a new lifelong lease on healthy eating, but the truth is my recent dietary discipline has merely been a part of my resolute conditioning for this trip. I've been fat and then dropped weight as a means to achieving a goal more times than Hillary has had opposition witnesses suicided.

During the trip, I'll gladly suspend any dietary resolve and just eat what's available, albeit still avoiding organ meat where possible. After all, it's not like I'll have a choice. One thing is for sure; I'll bring a fork! I never understood why anyone would eat food with sticks when forks exist. I do kinda like getting to slurp soup directly from the bowl because there's no spoon. But I digress.

I've read up on Nepalese and Tibetan cuisine and learned that the locals' diets are primarily comprised of lentils, rice, and breads, and they tend to be influenced not just on ethnicity, but on locale. This makes sense given that Nepal and Tibet don't exactly have the culinary distribution infrastructure that we enjoy in the States. Nevertheless, it appears to me to be a bit of a mix of Asian and Indian cuisines, both of which I generally like...as long as they're cooked.

 

Yak seems to be on the menu everywhere. I love beef and have eaten venison, horse, lion, ostrich, rattlesnake, alligator, kangaroo, camel, and something furry and ugly that was killed and grilled by an Aboriginal chief in the Outback. But I've never eaten yak, which looks to me like a cow with a Rastafarian hairdo. Apparently, yak is as versatile to the Tibetans as shrimp was to Benjamin Buford Blue.  Did I mention that I generally don't like shrimp?

 

I read that food can be difficult to grow in Tibet because of the altitude. It makes sense, but it never occurred to me before. Villages in upper elevations must rely on imports from lower lying regions for veggies and grains, but even their meats can be scarce because the grains needed for livestock grazing don't grow in the thin air. It occurred to me that we in the western world; especially Texas really don't realize just how good we have it.

Home of the Big Yak?

 

I'm a diehard carnivore (gasp) who loves meat, but I love my meat unspoiled. I admit that I harbor some concerns about refrigeration and perishable freshness over there. I prefer my yak-burger fresh, but for this trip will settle for anything this side of rancid. I've read that the locals have inherited and/or developed a robust intestinal constitution over time and as such, are able to tolerate meat that would have me and most westerners throwing up our toenails. I can't ride for hours on end battling the high altitudes while simultaneously clamping my sphincter shut and trying not to barf in my helmet. With that pleasant thought in mind, I suspect that unless I'm in a fairly modern restaurant, I'll stick to rice, veggies, eggs, and bread. Maybe even a yak-burger.

Yakity Yak. Don't Talk Back.

VIVA TEXAS!

Independence Day!