🍽️ Tibetan Pea Jelly

Pea-starch jelly, eastern Tibet snack.

Tibetan Pea Jelly is a distinctive snack of Chamdo (Qamdo) in eastern Tibet. Pea flour is mixed with water into a thin batter, seasoned with Tibetan spices, salt and minced meat, cooked into a set jelly and cooled, then cut into pieces. The texture is smooth and lightly bouncy, with the clean flavour of peas and a savoury Tibetan seasoning, eaten with a dusting of chili powder or alongside butter tea. The name is a transliteration of the local word; it is a cheap, common street-stall food of Chamdo, best fresh and hard to keep, so visitors usually taste it only in eastern Tibet itself. Plain and strongly regional, it is an interesting glimpse into everyday eastern-Tibetan eating.