Mongolian Food

Mongolian Food

Khuushuur

Mongolian food is very different from American food. The Mongolian diet is rooted in the herder culture. Years ago many, many Mongolians were herders. There are still a lot of herders but there aren’t as many as there used to be. Herders raise sheep, goats, yaks, cows, camels, and horses. So, the Mongolian diet is a lot of meat and dairy products. Sheep or mutton is the most popular meat. Many Mongolian families will buy a live sheep, kill it at home, and then eat all parts of the sheep. See this link for a story about a traditional Mongolian sheep dinner: http://www.slate.com/id/2295327/.  In the winter, the meat can be kept outside because it freezes. Mongolians don’t eat lambs or any other baby animals. It makes more sense to Mongolians to let the animals grow to adulthood. That way, you get more meat from the animals. In the grocery stores, you can buy frozen horse meat, mutton, beef, and chicken. We don’t eat horse meat in America, but it is very tasty. It’s lean and makes a good steak!



Buuz



Usually, mutton is boiled.  Mongolians eat a lot of soup (called shul). The soup has mutton, carrots, potatoes, and noodles made out of flour and water. The same dough made out of flour and water is also used to make large meat dumplings called buuz (sounds like “boats”), small meat dumplings called bansh, and fried meat pies called khuushuur (sounds like “ho-shur”). For all three, meat (usually mutton but sometimes beef) is chopped into very small pieces and mixed with chopped onions, a little water, salt and pepper. Buuz are steamed, bansh are cooked in soup or milk tea (see below about milk tea), and khuushuur are deep fried in oil. One big difference in American cooking and Mongolian cooking is that Mongolians do not remove the fat from meat. In fact, Mongolians believe that fat is good for you and will eat big pieces of fat by itself. So the meat that is chopped up for buuz, bansh or khuushuur and that is put in soup includes a good bit of fat too. Sometimes khuushuur are made with potatoes (called “tomstay khuushuur,” which means “fried pies with potatoes”) or potatoes, carrots, and zucchini (called “nagoni khuushuur,” which means “vegetable fried pies”) instead of meat. Pinching the buuz and khuushuur shut is a true art, which I have not been able to master. Mongolians, both men and women, can pinch with speed and end up with a beautiful pattern on their buuz or khuushuur.



Blow torching the fur off a marmot.



There is a traditional cooking method that’s used to cook goat and marmot. Marmot are large rodent-like creatures about the size of a large cat.  Mongolians like to hunt marmot. Rocks are heated in a fire and then the rocks are stuffed inside the dead goat or marmot along with meat that has been cut up, organs like liver and intestines, and a little water. The goat or marmot is sewn up to keep everything in. The meat cooks from the inside. Then the fur is burned off with a blow torch. The goat or marmot is cut open and the rocks are removed. The hot rocks are given to people to toss back and forth in their hands until the rock cools down.  Mongolians believe the rocks are good for your health.



Blow torching the fur off a marmot.



There are many dairy products. Yogurt (called “tarag”) is very good, and people make it at home. Mongolian yogurt is thinner than the yogurt you buy at the store in America. You drink Mongolian yogurt mixed with sugar. It’s delicious! Mongolians eat dried sour milk curds, called “aruul.” It tastes a little like parmesan cheese. Every Mongolian home has a thermos of milk tea, called suutay tsay, at all times. It’s made with black tea, milk, salt, and sometimes butter or melted fat.  Less salt or no salt is put in the suutay tsay in the northeast of Mongolia. When you visit a Mongolian home, you are served suutay tsay and candy. It’s part of the Mongolian tradition of hospitality toward guests. And you have to finish your tea. It’s considered rude to leave a full cup. There’s a sour cream made by Buriad people in the northeast of Mongolia. It’s called “tsotsgee.” Ten liters of milk makes one liter of tsotsgee.

The Travel Channel’s show, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman, did an episode in Mongolia. See videos and pictures from the episode here:  http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Bizarre_Foods/Episodes_Travel_Guides/Episode_Mongolia