Mongolian food scares cholesterol phobes, but the Mongols answer them with jokes. Mongolian Cuisine: Simple but Unique Gastronomy Mongolian Cuisine Dishes Design

Each individual nation has its own culinary characteristics. This also applies to Mongolia. Although Mongolian cuisine is not so popular all over the world, it has some very curious ways of preparing and eating various dishes. The most interesting thing is that the truly national Mongolian dishes are those that are prepared from what grows under your feet, that is, from grass and vegetables.

In any self-respecting Mongolian family, every morning begins with Suutei Tsai. This is a special milk tea with salt. The Mongols just love him. We drink tea or coffee in the morning, and in Mongolia Suutei Tsai. Like this. Drink this drink hot. They brew it for a whole day in thermoses, and only then drink it. During the day, the Mongols can drink up to ten bowls of this drink per person!

The Mongols love flour and baked goods. They especially like to cook unleavened cakes and cookies on the water. Unleavened Mongolian cookies are called Bortsog. This is a very dry cookie, it does not spoil for a long time, and therefore Mongolian women prepare it for whole weeks. The tough wrestler locals used to dip in Suutei Tsai. So it's easier to chew. Because this dry biscuit can break your teeth. That's how tough it is.

A long nomadic life taught the Mongols how to cook almost all dishes so that they do not spoil for a long time. This is how they cook dried beef meat, which is called Borts. The beef is cut into strips in autumn and hung out on ropes outside, where it gradually dries. Remove wrestler only in the spring. It is then that he is considered fully prepared. Then it is put into bags and ground into powder. Add wrestlers to all local soups instead of fresh meat.

The Mongols also love a drink made from mare's milk, which is some kind of koumiss, but it is called Airag. This fermented milk drink is prepared in the same way as koumiss, but it has its own secret, which the Mongols still do not reveal. Airag is the real salvation in the summer heat. Being a very fatty and nutritious product, it quenches thirst well and refreshes in the heat.

Another interesting feature of Mongolian cuisine is dried cheese. It's called Arul. Arul can be sweet, slightly sour and salty. It all depends on what is added to it during cooking. Arul is prepared from sour milk. It is considered very tasty and healthy.

There are a lot of amazing dishes in Mongolian cuisine: these are meat bozy, dumplings in milk broth, dried and fresh fruits, lamb, beef and horse meat prepared in the most amazing ways. In general, lovers of exotic cuisines should definitely try Mongolian dishes in order to penetrate the true spirit of the steppes and the freedom of one of the most ancient nomadic peoples of Asia!

Mongolian cuisine can rightfully be considered one of the main attractions of this state. To get to know the customs and preferences of the Mongolian people better, you should definitely try the local dishes. However, it should be noted that the traditional cuisine of the Mongols, which has developed under the strong influence of the nomadic lifestyle, has never been particularly refined.

The daily diet of the indigenous Mongols, which includes fatty nutritious foods, is very well suited to local natural and climatic conditions and is associated with cattle breeding. The main food products are meat (lamb, less often horse meat, beef) and milk (tea with the addition of milk, dried cottage cheese "aaruul", cheese "byaslag", foam "uryum", yogurt "tarak", melted butter "shar tos", koumiss airag, milk vodka archi).

"Red food" of the Mongols

Lamb, beef, horse meat, camel meat and goat meat are called "red food" in Mongolia. For cooking, both livestock meat and blood, offal are used. Mutton and horse meat, or meat of domestic animals with hot breath, were considered the most valuable. Camels, cattle, and goats were cold-breathed animals, and meat was less valuable. The meat of roe deer, wild boars, and gazelle obtained during hunting was regarded as a delicacy. Lamb was considered medicinal. And not everyone used the meat of the tarbagan, which had a specific aftertaste.

Traditional meat dishes:

• Jerky borts- a dish, the recipe of which has been preserved to this day unchanged. As a rule, it is harvested in late autumn and early winter from the meat of fairly well-fed cattle or camels. It is not difficult to cook wrestlers - the meat is freed from fat, tendons and cut into strips having a length of 20-30 cm, a thickness of 2-5 cm. Then they are hung in the shade. When drying in the cold, the liquid from the meat gradually disappears, while the nutrients are preserved. The quality of this dish depends on how the meat is cut, whether the place is dry, at what temperature the product is dried. The meat becomes very tough after drying quickly. Under the right storage conditions, wrestlers are used throughout the year. Before use, dried meat is dipped in milk tea or, most often, broth is boiled from it, after soaking it in water and letting it swell so that the volume increases by 2-2.5 times. And even in large cities, an observant tourist can notice hung strips of meat on the balconies.
• Horhog- one of the most interesting dishes from lamb. The cut meat with bones is laid in layers with stones heated on a fire, water and spices are added to the cauldron. Close the lid tightly and briefly put on an open fire. The meat prepared in this way has an excellent taste. It is impossible to try this dish in a restaurant, only in the company of nomadic Mongols in the open air in the steppe expanses.

• Boodog prepared from hunting prey (tarbagan or goat carcasses). According to the method of preparation, in some ways it resembles horhog. The whole skin is torn off from the carcass, partially with meat, while the insides are removed. After that, pieces of meat with bones and wild onions are placed in the skin and mixed with river, well-rounded pebbles, after heating it on fire. The carcass, cleaned of wool, is roasted on all sides over the fire until it is browned. After 30-40 minutes, the carcass is cut from the abdomen, water is poured into the hole, stones are removed. The resulting strong broth is poured into a bowl, the carcass is cut into pieces. When used, tarbagan boodog is usually washed down with spring cold water or hot tea.
• Tsusan hiam (i.e. black pudding)- in the lamb's small intestines, his blood is poured, mixed with flour, wild onions and salt. Then boil for about 15 minutes in meat broth.

• Sharsan alig- a liver wrapped in a piece of peritoneum without salt is kept on sticks for several minutes on fire.
• doortur- lungs, kidneys, heart, heart bag stuffed with pieces of meat; the stomach is filled with blood with wild onions, salt, flour, boiled in a cauldron for an hour and a half.
• Shol (i.e. chowder)- the wrestler is cut into small pieces, boiled in a cauldron for 10-15 minutes, adding a small amount of cereals, salt, onions.

In winter, the meat was frozen - the skinned carcasses were wrapped in a skin, placed in a wagon and thus preserved all winter. And in order to preserve more vitamin in the meat, it is customary to cook it for a short time and almost without salt.

"White food" of the Mongols

In addition to meat, the main component of Mongolian cuisine is dairy products, which are commonly referred to as "white food". The basis of the diet of the Mongols in winter and spring is meat, and in summer and autumn they give preference to dairy products in food. Such customs have developed as a result of a nomadic lifestyle. Indigenous people believe that "white food" is necessary for the stomach to rest after several months of eating and digesting fatty meat dishes.

A variety of dairy products are very popular among the Mongolian people. Milk of all varieties is used for food - mare, cow, camel, goat, sheep, while each type of milk has its own use. Butter, varenets, foams are made from sheep's and cow's milk, koumiss and vodka are made from mare's milk. It is generally accepted that mare's milk is pure, and therefore it is not boiled. The milk of other domestic animals was consumed after a long boil. In each dwelling (or yurt) it is customary to cook various cheeses: soft and hard, white and yellow (from baked milk), unsweetened Mongolian "yogurts", cottage cheese.

Fresh dairy products:

• Kumis (airag) is the most popular dairy product, made from raw mare's milk by long churning to form a frothy, sourish liquid like buttermilk. The drink perfectly quenches thirst. The Mongols have a belief that it has healing properties.
• Byaslag- a type of cheese made from unleavened cottage cheese, squeezed and pressed into the shape of a quadrangular layer.
• Tarag prepared from boiled milk with skimmed foam, then fermented with a special leaven.
• Orom It is a thick foam that is formed by boiling milk for a long time in a pot over low heat.

Canned dairy products:

• Aruul It is considered the next popular and important dairy product after koumiss. Dried arul is made from any milk - camel, cow, sheep, goat. It is dried cottage cheese, which can be stored all year round without losing its taste and vitamin qualities. This property of the product is very important for nomads. The hostess of the yurt can give guests pieces of dried cottage cheese as a treat, which can come in handy on a long journey through the endless steppes. To prepare aruul, the milk is heated until curdled, then well filtered. The resulting curd mass is rolled out, divided into small pieces and dried in the sun until completely hardened. The constant use of aruul, according to the Mongols, makes the teeth clean and strong.

• Groot- curd dried in small lumps is soaked in boiled water and consumed with it.
• Airash- sour milk diluted with cold water.
• Uryum. For its preparation, milk is boiled slowly and for a long time over low heat until a dense and thick foam appears, which is then removed, dried and stored until consumed.
• Oil made from milk froths by melting or drying, then poured into washed lamb stomachs and stored in this way in winter.
• Archi- milk moonshine tastes very similar to whey. A strong drink is easy to drink, so an unprepared person can quickly get drunk from it.

Aruul and groot served as the basis of nutrition for the Mongolian nomads (like bread for agricultural peoples), were a symbol of well-being, had ritual significance, and were a traditional reward for the winners of competitions. A distinctive feature of the Central Asian nomads was the consumption of only boiled milk.

"Green" food of the Mongols

Vegetable products in Mongolia are called "green food" and are part of the traditional cuisine of the Mongols. In terms of importance, they are equated with meat products or "red" foods. Despite the fact that the country has a pronounced continental climate, Mongolia is the birthplace of several hundred species of higher legumes and flowering plants, berries. The Mongolian people have long since learned to eat them, preserving and passing this unique plant culture from generation to generation.

Vegetable food was used as a seasoning and represented wild onions, rhubarb, sulkhir, champignons, wild cumin. Sarana roots were baked. Rhubarb stalks were also used baked, flavored with skins. For the winter, the heads of wild onions were dried, and the chopped stems were salted. With the help of manual grain graters, flour was made from grains of wild cereals, which was then dried, fried in a dish and, after cooling, stored. For use diluted with hot water and mixed with oil.

Flour dishes

Flour dishes are very popular in modern Mongolia.

• booze- steamed manti. Finely chopped meat, vegetables and fragrant broth are used as the filling. In order to successfully eat bouzes, you must first bite off a small piece from the top, drink the broth and then eat the rest.

• Khushur- a popular dish representing a small cheburek (pie) stuffed with meat, fried in lamb fat. Of the spices, only salt is used to fully reveal the taste of meat.
• Cuiwang- noodles with meat steamed and fried.
• Boortsog is a local snack for tea and consists of small lumps of dough fried in lamb fat, often salty or sweet. After cooking, salted ones quickly harden, are stored in this form for a very long time, and soaked in hot tea again become edible and tasty.

Mongolians are big tea lovers. However, the Mongolian tea, which is called here suutai cai, for a Russian tourist it may seem like a very strange drink, little like regular tea. Mongolian tea is prepared as follows: water is boiled in a cast-iron cauldron, tiled green tea is thrown into boiling water, then milk is added and continue to boil until fully cooked. Next, salt, fried flour, butter, lightly fried fat tail fat and ram bone marrow are added to the drink. Such tea could serve as the only food for pastoralists for many days. They drink such a drink without sugar, a thin layer of fat floats on its surface.

At present, it is customary to brew suutai cai in the morning in a thermos and drink it throughout the day, adding milk, salt, butter or mutton fat to it. Such a drink is served in all restaurants in Mongolia, and friendly Mongols are happy to treat guests to this tea in their yurts.

In Mongolia, tea drinking is a widespread tradition. When a traveler enters the yurt for a short while, the host and hostess always offer a bowl of tea. But it was not customary for the Mongols to have conversations over a cup of tea. The drinking took place in almost complete silence. Today, this rule is practically no longer observed.

It should also be noted that the first cup of tea, as a rule, is presented to the head of the family, the owner of the dwelling or yurt, and then to all other family members.

In Mongolia, significant meals are breakfast and lunch, which among the Mongols begins with tea. The drink is drunk while waiting for the lamb to cook. The hostess, bringing tea to the guest, serves it with both hands as a sign of respect. In turn, the guest should also accept the tea with both hands, showing respect to the house. In addition, Mongolia has right hand custom. During the greeting ceremony, both the snuffbox and the bowl are passed only with the right hand. And accordingly, the guest must accept any offering with his right hand or with both hands.

After tea drinking, it is customary to serve lamb, cut into large pieces. In honor of dear guests in Mongolia there is a custom to slaughter a ram. When receiving guests, a strict rule was observed to emphasize honor and respect; the eldest was presented with a ram's head and sacrum, symbolizing a whole ram. Then the broth is served with meat and homemade noodles.

In Mongolia, it is not customary to drink raw water, so at any time of the day there is koumiss or hot tea in every yurt.

Everyone is well aware that Mongolian food does not win culinary awards in world competitions, in fact, they themselves like to classify it as cafeteria food!

On our way to Mongolia we had no idea what the food would be, in fact our Mongolian friend just said “don't get your hopes up and you won't be disappointed!” This article aims to provide tips for visiting Mongolia in regards to the food that is actually served. P.S. Lots of lamb.

Restaurant / Roadhouse

Poses - Mongolian lamb manti

This dish can be tasted all over Mongolia, often in roadside eateries. We found that many regular restaurants don't even offer this dish. Despite the fact that poses are considered the national dish of Mongolia.

Huushuur (pronounced hushur)

Many tourist yurts on the eastern side of Mongolia offer this deep-fried bundle. It is also the main dish offered at Nadom. You will see people greedily eating them out of the bag!

Cuiwang - fried noodles with lamb

You can try everywhere, especially in places for recreation. This dish can vary greatly in taste, it all depends on who cooked it. Some are great, and some are very, very tasteless!

Many locals add ketchup to give it a "flavor".

Lamb soup

Nothing but lamb, lard and broth, sometimes (if you're lucky) served with a steamed bun.

lamb kebab

Specially served on the table during Nadom. Hard to find in restaurants. Yes, white pieces are not mushrooms, this is real fat!

Homemade treat: Food is often not served in yurts

Dry cheese biscuit (“Kurt” or “Arul”)

Favorite dish of all Mongols! It is made from squeezed sour milk left outside to dry out and then served as a dessert.

Try it, but it will end up on your "Food you should never eat again" list.

Mongolian cream - urum

For those who have tried heavy clotted cream, the smell will seem familiar enough, for those who have not tried it - savory, rich, amazing cream! They were one of Tommo's favorite dishes in Mongolia.

Butter from bovine milk

This is a very salty, sharp-tasting butter made from yak milk. Just for reference, families tend to make it in large batches to preserve during the winter, however, due to the lack of freezing equipment in yurts, the oil is stored in the stomach of the sheep.

Exactly! They put it in the stomach of a sheep, sew it up and leave it cool! You can practically taste stomach acid! If you're sick of it, it's probably best not to try it.

Typical Mongolian breakfast

Mare's milk - “Kumiss”

Another national favorite dish. Mare's milk is sour milk (and yes, it is alcoholic). It should be noted that it is considered rude to refuse the offered koumiss, you have 3 options: 1. drink to the bottom, 2. raise the cup to your lips and pretend that you are drinking, 3. lightly dip your middle finger into the milk, swipe three times to the left, then to the right, and finally up, like an offering to the spirits.

Lamb and noodle soup - Guriltai Shol

The name speaks for itself, the dish is usually quite tasty if the noodles are well salted and homemade.

Five fingers

There is nothing like a family meal. All parts of the sheep are stewed together in a large pot, including the meat, stomach, fat and of course the head, which is skillfully butchered by the oldest man in the yurt...if you're lucky, you may be offered an eyeball!

Traditionally, different organs have to be eaten by different family members...if the tradition is followed, you may have no choice but to eat the offal! In any case, once the meat is on the plate, in the dark yurt, each piece is, in a way, something unknown!

And now a little about something desperate...

Marmots

Often found in the western part of Mongolia, this furry creature is still known to carry the bubonic plague! We didn't eat marmots while in Mongolia, but one driver offered to kill one for us for lunch...we politely declined!

Mongolian food menu

Since food in Mongolia doesn't vary much between cities, we found this English/Mongolian menu to be really helpful. Often we showed it to the waitress and she pointed out what they could cook... Being in Mongolia, it is impossible to "get rid" of food... you have to eat something, right???

We noticed that even without experiencing a million flavors, many of the dishes were quite edible and sometimes even delicious! You'll never know unless you try something new and how you can find a new yummy...do you like lamb??? You really must like lamb!