Moslem restaurants bread. One of the best dietary supplements is fresh yoghurt, peddled in glass jars along the Barkhor every morning. Teashops in Old Lhasa serve sweet ' milk-tea'. Beer and soft drinks are ubiquitous and a bit of searching will turn up useful foods for traveling and trekking. Restaurant menus are sometimes limited and the variety of vegetables is determined by Tibet's short growing season and the produce that happens to be trucked in from neighboring Sichuan and Gansu.
Meat tends to be tough, chicken is scarce, but fish can be a delicious source of protein.
By most standards the restaurants lack hygiene, atmosphere and decor. If you do not speak Chinese or Tibetan, you can feel free to go into the kitchen, look over the food and point out what you want to have cooked for your meal. Be careful to ensure that each and every item you point at does not constitute one individual course, otherwise you will end up with a huge, expensive banquet. Lhasa's Moslems, both indigenous Tibetans and recent arrivals from Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia, have opened a number of halal restaurant. The standard menu can be supplemented with seeds, peanuts or canned food usually available at the counter.