Dining in Nyingchi
Nyingchi has the richest food in Tibet. As well as Tibetan classics such as barley wine, meat pies and butter tea, there are many local specialities. Nyingchi is sometimes called the “Jiangnan of Tibet”, after the green, fertile land south of the Yangtze, and its warm valleys grow pears, peaches, apples, walnuts and many other fruits.
Local Specialties
- Tibetan fragrant pork (Zangxiang zhu) — a small local breed of pig that lives half-wild in the forests. The meat is roasted or made into sausages, and you will find it in most restaurants in Bayi and the nearby counties.
- Shi Guo Ji (stone-pot chicken) — the famous dish of Lunang. A local free-range chicken is cooked for hours in a pot carved from local stone, with wild mushrooms and herbs. One of the most memorable meals in Tibet.
- Sha Guo Dou Fu (clay-pot tofu) — tofu and meat slow-cooked in a clay pot, another Lunang speciality.
- Lhoba wine — a home-made wine of the Lhoba people, brewed from finger millet and corn. It tastes quite unlike Chinese rice wine.
Food of the forest peoples: the Monpa and Lhoba people of Nyingchi have their own cooking, with lots of chilli, maize, wild greens and forest mushrooms.
Restaurants in Bayi Town
- Tibetan teahouses — good milk tea and a relaxed local atmosphere, often with locals playing cards.
- Upscale Tibetan restaurants — Bayi has several smart restaurants with Tibetan decoration and costumed staff, good for a special dinner.
- Hotpot restaurants — many set-price, all-you-can-eat hotpot places, great value after a long day.
- Evening food street — street stalls along the main road sell Tibetan and Chinese snacks in the evening.
Restaurants in Lunang Town
Lunang, a small town in a forest valley below the Sergyi La pass, is famous for stone-pot chicken. Almost every restaurant on the main street serves it, cooked to order in its own stone pot. Order it at the start of your meal, as it takes time.
About Nyingchi’s Food Scene
Bayi, the main town of Nyingchi, is at about 2,900 m, much lower than Lhasa. That makes Nyingchi the most fertile farming region in Tibet, so the food here is fresher, more varied and cheaper than almost anywhere else on the plateau.
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