On the high plateau, there is no starter-main course-dessert: the day begins with a large bowl of salted butter tea (po cha) to which tsampa, roasted barley flour, is added and kneaded into dough balls with the fingertips. Heartier meals — noodle soups (thukpa), steamed dumplings (momo) — are reserved for days of strength or celebration. Sweets are rare and precious, belonging to major occasions, especially Losar, the New Year. Everything revolves around barley, yak butter, and tea, which warm and nourish at 3,600 meters altitude.

Roasted and ground barley is the soul of Tibetan cuisine: light to carry, ready without cooking, it mixes with salted butter tea to become the daily bread. Yak butter, meanwhile, flavors both tea and festive pastries.