Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan province, is one of China's most charming and welcoming cities. The relentless bustle and industry that characterize other Chinese cities gives way to a relaxed, dignified lifestyle, exemplified by the stately flow of the Fu and Nan Rivers, whose banks are lined with manicured parks, tea houses and bars. Of all China's major cities, Chengdu is also the closest to the border of Tibet (officially known as the Tibetan Autonomus Region). Because of this, Chengdu has a lot of Tibetan residents and visitors, some of whom come to Chengdu for the city's hospitals, government offices and universities; others use it as a stopping point before they travel further east into China.

At the restaurants and cafes in Chengdu's Tibetan quarter, yak butter tea is served in brass teapots, and poured into the small, delicate bowls commonly used as teacups in Sichuan province. It comes out a pale beige; as the drink cools, yellow globules of butter fat start to congeal at the drink's surface, so it is best enjoyed as warm as possible. It is salty and thick, as has the tang a Westerner might associate with buttermilk.

A suitable accompaniment to yak butter tea is tsampa, a staple of Tibetan cooking, made by adding tea and yak butter to roast barley flour. It's the texture of raw cookie dough, and rolled into small balls before eating--the flavor is simple and nutty. Diners can also enjoy an array of yak products prepared in a seemingly infinite number of ways, such as yak meat sausage, yak meat broth, rice and yak meat, yak meat stewed in soy sauce, yak butter pie, and yak milk yogurt. Best of the selection may be yak meat noodles, in which wide wheat noodles, prepared fresh, are cooked in rich, beefy yak broth with chard and green onions. The dish, like yak butter tea, is designed to take the chill out of a high-altitude Himalayan evening. For Tibetans in Chengdu, it's a taste of home.

Yak Butter Tea:

A Salty, Tangy

Taste of Home

epicurious.com

    Southwest of the city center, a neighborhood has grown to cater to the needs of the traveling Tibetan. On the streets near the Wuhou Memorial Temple, tall Tibetan women with long black braids and monks in saffron and oxblood robes shop in cluttered storefronts for strings of paper prayer flags, beads and incense. Other shops, with signs printed in Tibetan script, sell traditional Tibetan clothes, and a handful of shops sell nothing but heavy-duty, industrial strength blenders. These blenders are necessary to the preparation of the dish that is chief among Tibet's culinary delights: yak butter tea.

    Consumed by Tibetans at every hour of day, yak butter tea is, at best, an acquired taste for most Western palates. As its name suggests, yak butter tea is easy to prepare: to a pot of hot tea, add a generous knob of butter made from yak's milk, and a fistful of salt. Churn, or, in modern-day Chengdu, blend the ingredients to a smooth consistency, and the drink is ready to consume.

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