High-altitude cooking shaped by yaks, barley, butter tea (po cha) and a short growing season. Tsampa (roasted barley flour) is the staple; momos (steamed or fried dumplings) the celebrated dish; sepen tomato hot sauce and butter tea are at every table. Sweet plates like dresil (butter-and-raisin rice for Losar New Year) bookend the savoury staples. The fierce ema datshi style of cheese-and-chilli stew bridges Tibetan and Bhutanese kitchens.
Thinly sliced beef marinates briefly in soy, garlic, ginger and a touch of cornflour for tenderness. A hot wok flashes the meat in batches, then onion, capsicum and chillies stir-fry until just beginning to char. Everything tosses back in with a small splash of soy and stock to glaze. Lots of fresh coriander and spring onion to finish.
A firm wheat dough rests while you build a clear, ginger-forward broth with beef, tomato and warming spices. When the broth is ready, the dough is rolled into a thick sheet, brushed with oil and cut into long strips. At the moment of cooking, each strip is held over the simmering broth and pinched into rough 3-4 cm squares that drop in. The noodles cook in 2-3 minutes. Greens and coriander finish.
A simple wheat-flour dough rests while a clear, ginger-and-garlic-forward broth simmers with beef (standing in for yak), Sichuan peppercorn and a tomato. The dough is rolled and cut into thin noodles, or, if you prefer, store-bought egg noodles. Vegetables and greens go in at the end; fresh coriander and chilli on top. Honest, restorative, not fancy.
A burger that eats with a Himalayan accent rather than a Western one. The seasoning is essentially momo filling: soy sauce, grated ginger, grated garlic, spring onion, white onion, ground Sichuan pepper (emma), salt, black pepper. No tomato, no smoked paprika, no Cajun spice, the flavour is clean, savoury, faintly numbing on the back of the tongue from the emma. Lighter and more delicate than a typical beef burger; the mince is loose because it isn't bound with breadcrumb or egg, so the patty stays juicy on the inside even when the surface chars. Smell: ginger and soy hitting hot iron. Easy weeknight cooking, the only meaningful step is letting the seasoned mince rest for 15 minutes (or longer) so the soy and aromatics permeate. The dish was created by the YoWangdu kitchen as a fusion that fits the momo flavour into the Western lunch format; sepen (Tibetan tomato hot sauce) on top is how it goes from good to actually Tibetan.
