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Mongolia is known as the Land of Five Animals sheep, goats, cattle,
horses, and camels. The main meats are mutton (Lonely Planet states that
the "smell permeates everything" and that after foreigners have visited
they say "it takes weeks to get ride of that mutton smell") and beef.
In the cities shops sell: beef, hamburger, smoked hammocks, sausages,
hot dogs, and chicken. "The Mongol chickens have been described as
'very athletic'."
Drinks
The
main drinks are tea, milk, airag (fermented mare's milk) and vodka.
Guests are always served tea first. The Mongolians drink milk tea with
salt. Sometimes the tea is cooked with rice, dumplings and flour. Airag
is probably the most favorite drink of the Mongolians. Airag is
generously served at weddings, big parties and ceremonies. Airiag, the
fermented mare's milk, has three times more Vitamin C than cow's milk.
To make airag from mare's milk, put it into a hohuur (a big leather bag
made from cow's skin) and beat it until it gets fermented. It is
usually ready the next day.
Airiag is further fermented to make shimiin arkhi (milk vodka).
Diary
Traditional Mongolian food has got many kinds of dairy products: aaruul
(dried curd), cheese, cottage cheese and others.
To
make aaruul, dried curd, milk is boiled with some fermented cheese, and
then the mass is cut into pieces or put into forms and dried on special
plates. There is different technology to make Mongolian cheese and
yogurt.
Meat
Meat has always been an important ingredient of the Mongolian food. In
order to keep the meat for long period of time, it is smoked by keeping
the meat above the smoke of burning dried dung. Meat is also dried in
the open air and then used for cooking.
There are several kinds of meat dishes. For instance, depending on the
part of the animal body the meat is taken from, the meat is called
turag makh (meat), dotor meat, tolgoi and shiir. Turag meat is the meat
of the animal body; dotor makh from the is heart, stomach, kidney and
lungs of an animal. Meat is served in different styles: it can be
filling for dumplings, the main ingredient of soups, or it can just be
boiled and served.
Boodog is one of the delicacies. For making boodog the goat meat or
mutton is cut into pieces and cooked in an animal skin from the inside
out, by placing hot rocks inside.
The
are a number of restaurant that serve a wide variety of international
meals including Korean, Japanese, Chinese, French, Italian, English,
and Latin America. Most of the old restaurant serve typical Russian
food, and this type of meal is also common in the base camps in the
countryside. Mongolian special ceremonial meals, Boodog og Horhog can
be served on order.
The city of Ulaanbaatar is
offering more variety, but in the countryside only mutton, yak,
horsemeat, beef, and camelmeat are available
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