Tibetan food is built on highland barley, and bread is no exception. The grain grows at altitudes where wheat and rice struggle, and it appears as roasted flour, as flatbread and as fried dough, eaten with butter tea at every meal. Because Lhasa also has a large Chinese population and visitors who want a sandwich, small bakeries around the old city now sell white loaves, sweet bread and pastries as well, and the two trades sit happily together on the same street.
The traditional breads
The everyday staple is tsampa, roasted barley flour, which is not baked at all: a handful is put in a bowl, butter tea is poured over it, and it is mixed by hand into a dough and eaten. It travels, keeps for months and needs no cooking, which is why it is the food of travellers and nomads rather than of kitchens. Alongside it, Tibetans bake flatbreads in a pan or against the wall of an oven, sometimes with a little fat or sugar worked in, and fry dough in oil to make crisp pastries - the twisted and folded fried dough eaten at New Year is the best known of these, made in quantity and piled up in shops. Barley flour is also pressed into cakes and baked for celebrations, decorated with butter and coloured patterns.
The bakeries
Around the Barkhor and in the lanes of the old city you will find small shops selling fried dough, buns, bread and biscuits by weight, and a number of newer bakeries with trays of cakes, filled buns and sliced white bread, which sell to the Tibetans shopping in the market as much as to visitors. The ovens are usually gas and the range is a mixture of Tibetan, Chinese and European - a sweet coconut bun next to a fried barley twist. Prices are low, and buying a bag of mixed pastries for a few yuan is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to provision a long drive.
Practical notes
Bakeries open early, and the fried dough is best in the morning when it is still hot. If you want to try tsampa, it is sold by weight in the markets and groceries, and most teahouses will bring you a bowl and the butter tea to mix it with if you ask. Barley flour is heavy and bulky, so buy a small bag rather than a large one. Most breads are fine for a day or two in a cool bag and make good food for the long road to Shigatse or Namtso, where the roadside options are limited.
