糌粑 (zānbā) · tsampa (Tibetan staple of roasted barley flour)

Measure Word

一团糌粑 tuán

Meanings

1 tsampa (Tibetan staple of roasted barley flour)

About the ingredient

粮食 Grains and noodles

Flour of highland barley that is roasted before milling, so it needs no more cooking. Tibetans mix it in a bowl with butter tea, dried cheese and sugar, kneading it by hand into small balls.

Characters

糌

zān

(only used in 糌粑) tsam-, transliteration

粑

bā

cake, dough ball (esp. of grain flour)

Examples

HSK 7-9

藏族同胞每天都吃糌粑。

Zàngzú tóngbāo měitiān dōu chī zānbā.

Tibetans eat tsampa every day.

HSK 7-9

他用酥油茶把糌粑捏成小团。

Tāyòng sūyóuchá bǎ zānbā niē chéng xiǎo tuán.

He kneaded the tsampa into small balls with butter tea.

Tips

culture

Tibetan dietary cornerstone for over a thousand years: highland barley (青稞) is roasted then ground into flour. Eaten by mixing with butter tea (酥油茶) or yak butter directly in a wooden bowl, then kneaded by hand into bite-sized balls. The word 糌粑 is itself a transliteration of Tibetan tsampa.

mistakes

Pronounced zānbā, not zǎnbā. The neutral-tone reading zān ba also appears, but the spelled-out reading zānbā with first tone on both syllables is the most common standard.