Highland-Barley Flatbread

Qingke flatbread is a hearty round made from highland-barley flour kneaded with water, rolled out and grilled on a griddle or hot stone, its crust golden and faintly charred, the crumb within soft yet substantial, carrying the faint sweet grain-fragrance unique to barley, a common bread and trail food of Shangri-La's Tibetan homes.

The bread grows from the plateau food tradition, where barley is the staple grain of the highland; Tibetan families either knead it into tsampa or bake it into flatbread to meet the demands of travel and labour, and so the qingke flatbread became a household bread handed down through generations.

Cut warm from the griddle, the crust is crisp and the crumb chewy, often paired with butter tea, yoghurt or yak jerky as a breakfast or travel bread; it may also be spread with butter and dusted with sugar.

The faint sweet grain-fragrance of barley, the hearty contrast of crisp crust and chewy crumb, and the way it fills and keeps, are what set this flatbread apart from ordinary breads.