We have finally landed a delicious dessert on the menu at our pop up at Silvie. Ice cream is of course a known thing, but we have created a uniquely Tibetan twist on it that turns it into something a bit different. I shall say no more. Make sure that you come and sample our new dessert for yourselves this week, and let us know what you think! Dessert isn't really a fixture in Tibet. When we gave Yeshi's parents their first taste of chocolate back in 2016, they thought it was disgusting. Yeshi also claims to find many things "too sweet" (but our children don't buy it: they have renamed him the "secret chocolate eater", as some treats appear to go down very well after they have gone to bed). I
Offering prayers before food is a common practice among followers of all the world's major religions. Christians, for example, say grace before their meals. Muslims recite the du'a whenever food or drink passes the lips. Hindus chant a prayer and sprinkle water around their food. In Tibet, Buddhists also offer prayers at mealtimes. The practice is similar to that of other religions, but the motivation and wording of the prayer is arguably more complex. The Buddhist prayer is designed to address our tendency, as humans, to eat without thought or even much enjoyment, to eat for temporary pleasure or with ideas of making ourselves more attractive, and so on. It aims to focus the mind on eating
We have a new staple on the menu at our pop up at Silvie, and it's got a lot of people talking. It doesn't take the loving prep of our momos - in fact you don't even need to pick up a knife - but it's a crowd pleaser, not least for its colourful name. Smacked cucumbers are the perfect accompaniment to momos or to a curry, especially if you've inadvertently heaped on more of Yeshi's hot chilli than you'd meant. This delicious, cooling dish is unbelievably moreish. An unexpected result is that you end up drinking down the dressing: a cocktail of soy, vinegar, sesame oil and garlic. The end of the cucumber is never the end of the dish. So why the smacking? This part relates to the way in which
