flipTsampa with Butter Tea
Tsampa with Butter Tea
Why this dish? This was Ang Tsering's every-morning food, both in the village and at base camp: roasted barley flour that the Sherpa kneads with his fingertips in his bowl of hot tea. Light to carry, slow to burn, it is the food that accompanied him on the trails of the Khumbu and at the foot of Nanga Parbat.
A roasted barley flour mixed by hand with salted butter tea until it forms a malleable dough that is rolled into small balls. Nothing to cook: it is the mountaineer's reflex food, ready in an instant.
Look at my hands: no need for fire, no need for a pot. I pour a little tsampa into the bowl, moisten it with the hot po cha, and I turn, I turn with my thumb until it forms a dough that no longer sticks. Roll a ball, eat it, roll another. On the trail to Namche I never had any other lunch, and that is what kept me upright when the air thins up there.
- •Roasted barley flour (tsampa) — two handfuls (base, starch)
- •Salted yak butter tea — one hot bowl (binder and fat)
Tsampa with Butter Tea
A roasted barley flour mixed by hand with salted butter tea until it forms a malleable dough that is rolled into small balls. Nothing to cook: it is the mountaineer's reflex food, ready in an instant.
Why this dish? This was Ang Tsering's every-morning food, both in the village and at base camp: roasted barley flour that the Sherpa kneads with his fingertips in his bowl of hot tea. Light to carry, slow to burn, it is the food that accompanied him on the trails of the Khumbu and at the foot of Nanga Parbat.
Look at my hands: no need for fire, no need for a pot. I pour a little tsampa into the bowl, moisten it with the hot po cha, and I turn, I turn with my thumb until it forms a dough that no longer sticks. Roll a ball, eat it, roll another. On the trail to Namche I never had any other lunch, and that is what kept me upright when the air thins up there.
Ingredients (period version)
- Roasted barley flour (tsampa) — two handfuls (base, starch)
- Salted yak butter tea — one hot bowl (binder and fat)
Ingredients
- Roasted barley flour (tsampa, from Tibetan/Nepali grocery) — 100 g (base)
- Strong brewed black tea — 200 ml (hot liquid)
- Semi-salted butter — 20 g (fat, replaces yak butter)
- Salt — 1 pinch (seasoning)
Method
- Brew the black tea strong and pour it hot into a large bowl.
- Melt the semi-salted butter in the tea and add a pinch of salt; mix.
- Gradually sprinkle the barley flour over the hot tea.
- Knead with your fingertips directly in the bowl, adding more flour or tea, until a soft, non-sticky dough forms.
- Roll into small balls and eat warm, by hand.
How it was made : In Ang Tsering's time, every Sherpa household roasted its own barley and then ground it at a water mill or with a stone quern. Tsampa was carried in a leather or wool sack and prepared without fire — a decisive advantage at altitude where lighting a stove costs time and fuel.
The contemporary twist : Serve the tsampa ball rolled in toasted sesame seeds, placed on a slate, as a high-altitude bite.
Ang Tsering · Charactorium
