Tent Snacks

Tent Snacks

　　Nomadic herders move with the water and grass throughout the year. Adapted to this way of life, they have developed a variety of uniquely flavored snacks. These snacks are not found at street stalls nor served in upscale restaurants—you can only enjoy their distinctive tastes by experiencing them firsthand. There is a rich assortment of these snacks, prepared using unconventional and ingenious methods, and enjoyed in hearty, unrestrained ways that add to their charm. Due to the high consumption of mutton, there are many creative ways to prepare sheep intestines. For example, there are five types of boiled sausages: those filled with sheep blood are called blood sausage; those stuffed with minced meat are called meat sausage; those filled with a mixture of flour paste and oil are called flour sausage; those made mainly with sheep fat mixed with minced meat are called fat sausage; and those filled with chopped liver pieces are called liver sausage. When making blood sausage, salt is mixed in, and sometimes a bit of chopped scallion is added. The sausage is then boiled in water for over ten minutes before being taken out, sliced, and served. The minced meat used in meat sausage is cut coarser and seasoned with salt, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and minced ginger. Once cooked and sliced, the meat is tender, flavorful, not greasy, and doesn’t get stuck in your teeth—the taste is absolutely delicious. Flour sausage is mainly made with pea flour (though wheat flour is also used), mixed with some sheep fat and scallion, and seasoned with salt and ginger powder. After boiling, a slice is roasted repeatedly over a fire until the skin turns yellow, crispy, and hard. The filling is fragrant and the skin is crisp—it’s extremely tasty. Fat sausage is known for its richness, while liver sausage wins with its tenderness. Each of the five sausages has its own unique flavor, leaving a lasting impression. Then there’s grilled sheep liver: take fresh sheep liver, rinse off the blood, sprinkle a bit of salt, wrap it in two or three layers of damp paper, and toss it into a blazing cow dung fire. After about half an hour, as the paper dries and eventually turns to ash, dig out the liver, peel off any surface debris, and enjoy the wafting aroma. Slice or shave off pieces, then dip them in minced ginger, salt, and pepper to eat. The texture is tender, the flavor fresh, and the aftertaste unforgettable. Other unique snacks include water-oil pancakes: roll the dough into thin pancakes, first boil them in hot water, then spread on a mixture of clarified butter, dried yogurt (Qula), and sugar. They’re soft, sweet, and delicious when eaten. There’s also steamed rice with clarified butter, made by mixing washed rice with clarified butter, highland barley kernels (Jiemai), and brown or white sugar, then steaming it in a bowl. When served, it’s richly aromatic with oil and vibrant in color. Alternatively, cooked highland barley kernels can be mixed with yogurt or melted clarified butter to make yogurt highland barley or clarified butter highland barley. Another treat is highland barley flour, highland barley kernels, and clarified butter mixed evenly, steamed, then cut into pieces to make highland barley kernel oil cake. These are not only delicacies used by herders to respectfully entertain guests, but also typical examples of ethnic culinary traditions—authentic flavors of the grasslands. (Xining)