What’s There to Eat in Qinghai Province?

Posted by on | Featured | No Comments

After spending  three weeks cycling through the very remote province of Qinghai (North of Tibet, East of Xinjiang), I came to the slow, sad realization that there isn’t much variety in the diets here. Almost all of the province sits on a high plateau (10,000+ feet), so it is above the tree line, and there are basically no crops. The very scattered and small population mainly consists of nomadic yak herders.

Here’s what we found to nosh on along the way:

This village had a few more veggies on hand, so zucchini and onions are added into the fried noodle mix.
This village had a few more veggies on hand, so their unchopped version had zucchini and onions  added into the fried noodle mix for a little more versatility.
Mutton or yak in chopped noodle soup (羊肉／毛牛肉面片）is the standby dish. Get used to this if you're traveling in the area - you're going to be eating a lot of it.
Mutton or yak in chopped noodle soup (羊肉／毛牛肉面片）is the standby dish. Get used to this if you’re traveling in the area – you’re going to be eating a lot of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overloaded trucks to save on transport costs are the norm here. This village harvested their cabbage, and used a human chain of people to load the trucks. Tossing the cabbage was the final step!
Overloaded trucks to save on transport costs are the norm here. This village harvested their cabbage, and used a human chain of people to load the trucks. Tossing the cabbage was the final step!

 

Sometimes the trucks got a little too overloaded. This truck's axle broke, and we had to jump in and help out by eating the excess watermelon weight. Not a bad job!
Sometimes the trucks got a little too overloaded. This truck’s axle broke, and we had to jump in and help out by eating the excess watermelon weight. Not a bad job!
These xiaolongbao (小笼包）don't look anything like the Shanghai version. More like Nepali momo. Still very tasty. Found in the city of Yushu (玉树)。
These xiaolongbao (小笼包）don’t look anything like the Shanghai version. More like Nepali momo. Still very tasty. Found in the city of Yushu (玉树)。

 

Always excited to find a Sichuan restaurant lurking in the medium-sized villages in Qinghai province. There was always much more variety, spicy stir-fries, and very put-together prep areas.
Always excited to find a Sichuan restaurant lurking in the medium-sized villages in Qinghai province. There was always much more variety, spicy stir-fries, and very put-together prep areas.

 

Dumplings and peppers with pork (青椒肉丝) makes a nice lunch break.
Dumplings and peppers with pork (青椒肉丝) makes a nice lunch break.

 

Half Price Kids Tickets!
An Amazing responsive and Retina ready theme.
Tags: , , ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>