Diqing Dining
Most residents in Diqing are Tibetans, so food is of Tibetan flavor. Here in Diqing, tourists can taste natural Zanba, buttered tea, barley beer, have a dinner at home of Tibetan's and experience the local customs. Food and beverage in Shangri-La City are mainly of Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibetan style. There are different flavor restaurants in Shangri-La, tourists can easily find one of them. The food of Yunan is spicy , similar to Sichuan food.
1. Zanba (roasted highland barley flour)
Zanba is the main food for Tibetan people and is divided into several kinds: highland barley Zanba, pea Zanba and mixed Zanba. Zanba is nutritious and is easy to carry about. It is the most convenient food for the Tibetans living in plateau. When they go on a long journey, if they bring a bowl or Zanba bag, Zanba, butter and dry milk residue, no matter where they are, they can use water instead of buttered tea to make a meal of fragrant and nice Zanba without lighting a fire to cook. Zanba is made by drying highland barley in the sun, parching the barley and grinding the barley into flour in water mill. It is ground into coarse or fine flour according to different flavor, and it also can be ground into refined Zanba by removing the bran. The way of eating: pour a little buttered tea into a bowl first, add some butter, fine milk residue and white sugar into it, and then put the Zanba flour into the bowl. Then hold the bowl with the left hand, mix them with the right hand in the bowl to and fro, and mould them into small balls for eating after they are mixed thoroughly.
2. Milk product
Tibetans used to breed cow and drink nutritious milk. From spring to winter, the pails of herdsmen are full of fresh milk. People use milk to make varied milk products such as cheese, skin formed on boiled milk, butter and yogurt for daily use.
When the host presents you a cup of wine, you should dip your ring finger in the wine and flick the wine in the air three times to express your respects to the heaven, the earth and the ancestors before sipping the wine. The host will fill the cup, and you take a sip of the wine again. After the host fills your cup for the forth time, you have to bottom it up. Tibetans toast each other with songs wishing people well, good health and so on. The person who is being toasted empties their cup when the song is finished.
3. Buttered Tea
Buttered tea is Tibetan traditional drink. It is necessary everyday food, and is also excellent drink for entertaining guests.
Buttered tea is a kind of very nutritious drink being suited to high and cold region. It can resist coldness, promote body fluid and quench thirst, and get rid of fatigue, so it is popular with Tibetans. The way of making: put a suitable amount of butter and salt ( if having milk, egg and walnut may be better) into strong tea, pour them into a specially made round wood pail. A special stick is used to beat the tea up and down in the pail to make the butter and tea dissolve fully. Then it is poured into a pot or boiler, put on slow fire and is ready to be poured out for drinking.
Restaurant
1. Diqing Restaurant: Located in No. 11, Changzheng Road, Diqing, holding 600 people to have a dinner together, it is the biggest restaurant in Diqing.
2. Hongmu Flavor Snack Restaurant: Located at Heping Road, nearby the Longfengxiang Hotel. It serves all kinds of Tibetan snacks at reasonable prices.
