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 rid of that mutton smell") and beef. In the cities shops sell: beef, hamburgers, sausages, 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 favourite drink of the Mongolians, and is generously served at weddings, big parties and ceremonies. The fermented mare's milk has three times more Vitamin C than cow's milk. To make airag from mare's milk, it is put into a hohuur (a big leather bag) and beaten until it gets fermented. It is usually ready the next day.
Airag is further fermented to make shimiin arkhi (milk vodka).

Dairy
Traditional Mongolian food includes many kinds of dairy products: aaruul (dried curd), cheese, cottage cheese and others.
To make aaruul, milk is boiled with some fermented cheese, and then the mass is cut into pieces or moulded into forms and dried on special plates. There is different technology to make Mongolian cheese and yogurt.

Meat
Meat has always been an important component of the Mongolian diet. In order to keep the meat for long periods 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, 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 restaurants that serve a wide variety of international meals including Korean, Japanese, Chinese, French, Italian, English, and Latin American. Most of the old restaurants serve typical Russian food, and this type of meal is also common in the base camps in the countryside. Mongolian special ceremonial meals, such as Boodog or Horhog can be made to order.

The city of Ulaanbaatar is offering more variety, but in the countryside only mutton, yak, horsemeat, beef, and camelmeat are available.