the special mongolian diet

As a french saying goes "chose promise, chose due". Here we go with the food you will eat in Mongolia. First of all you have to know that it is mostly dairy and meat products. So a basic meal will be fried rice/pasta with lamb and a tiny bit of vegetables: usually two carrots for six to eight people, just to add some colors in fact. Lots of onions too, and lot lot lot of oil. So if you are vegetarian -like I was at that time- you are going to be in trouble.

the art of making pasta

I told the cook, so she cooked separate dish for me, which consisted of white rice in an ocean of butter. So after two days of no eating, I decided that the normal food will do. I just usually put the meat away (but it is not easy task because they grind meat so it is a work of patience). And you must tolerate the taste of meat anyway. But their food looks more delicious than mine, and I was eating half hour after/before them so I just thought, let's do it the easy way.

and the art of grinding meat

Ok, this is baically the type of food you can find in countryside. It is usually home made pasta (made with flour and water, pretty easy but very long to make), boiled with lamb meat and few carrots/onions. You can also have the same combination with rice instead of pasta: here you are!!

When you do not have much at home, or when it is cold, they also use to cook a flour soup. It consists of hot water, in which they add wet flour, so that it makes flour lumps, it is actually quite tasty :)) especially after a long day horse riding, or just when you are hungry.
 
You rediscover the simplicity of food there, because they are just not farmers. Some associations try to teach Mongolian people how to grow things, but they usually just buy it at the xuncnii delguur = "the people shop".

They do not have deserts. So do not hope for a cake fruit or yoghurt. They do have their own yoghurt, the most delicious I ate so far (and I am a professional about that), but they just eat it whenever they feel like eating. Do not be afraid of gaining weight!!

Here you can find also a traditional meal. The steam bread is called mantyy, and it is made of flour and baking powder. This is my favourite among Mongolian food. This goes with cuutetsei = milk tea, tea, mil and salt, and you can enjoy buuz = steamed dumplings (with lamb of course, so be aware, it may be steamed, it is still very fatty, and to balance it, some carrot salad!!

 Here you have a different sort of mantyy. You can actually add spring onions (such as those ones), but also meat, etc.


Whatever you eat, be aware of oil and butter everywhere, added to the fat of the meat!! and everything tastes lamb. Good luck!!

About the drinks, they are fond of tea. This is their traditional everyday drink. Besides, we will see in the "traditions" part that this is a must do. As explained before, they usually prepare it with salt. It may seem easy, but it is not! I did it many times, and one time there is not enough salt, one time it is just impossible to drink because of too much salt. There is a way of doing it, that you will learn quite quickly if you do it everytime needed (which means three to four times a day).
Then you may add milk to obtain the traditional milk tea. Delicious and quite feeding.

Airag is the second common drink during summer, as horses are fat and give lot of milk. Yes this is horse's milk. It is fat free, and though it could taste weird, we get used to it very quickly. Besides it is very refreshing when you travel during a hotty summer day. The temperature can reach 30°C with no wind, and of course no shadow in the steps. That's why you usually stop at soe's ger to have a rest and drink a bit of airag. However, get ready to drink it with some flies as there are huge quantities of it dying in the milk.

As you can notice, I give it a try, but I can tell you the result was not that good! It is a pretty difficult thing to get the milk of a horse.