Tibetan Beer

After the monkey temple, we ended the journey with a cab ride back to our neighborhood of Thamel, and dinner at the Yak Cafe, a Tibetan joint.  The guidebook recommended tongba, a kind of beer.  It works like this.  They put some hard alcohol into the tube, then fill the tube with millet (this is the first time I’d seen millet, a coarse grain that provides sustenance to much of India).  Then they poured hot water into the tube and let it steep like tea.  So it’s not really beer, though it has the basic ingredients.  More like alcoholic millet tea.  Weird, and not particularly tasty.  Not as strong as the rice wine from the previous night, though.  I suppose if you like it it’s a great bargain, because for about a dollar you get the drink, and you can refill the millet with hot water 3 or 4 times, so it’s actually a lot of beverage.  As you can see, Melissa tried it, but she was satisfied with one or two tastes.  I drank some more, but supplemented my meal with a Sprite.