1) C. 13 There are far more horses and animals in Mongolia than people!!
2) True The Bogd Han National Park which is just south of where we live was established around the mid 1700s. We have hiked and camped in this park.
3) B. 5,000 ft Ulaanbaatar is just under 5,000 ft above sea level but the highest point is well over that!
4) A. Indian Jones In case you didn’t know, Roy Chapman Andrews was the first Paleontologist to find intact dinosaur eggs and nests in the Gobi.
5) True Though there are other “wild” herds of horses in the world, Mongolia has the only remaining truly wild breed of horse which has never been totally tamed and domesticated.
In this blog post, we are going to introduce you to some Mongolian cuisine! Prepare for some mouthwatering descriptions of some of the best Mongolian foods we have eaten. Feel free to drool a little, but don’t let anybody catch you because they might think you are going crazy!
There are thousands of restaurants in Ulaanbaatar. Some are big, fancy, and expensive. Some are akin to a more western dining experience. Some are Indian. Some are Italian. There is even one that is Mexican though we would not call it that. And surprise of all surprises there are not only Mongolian Bar-B-Q restaurants but there is also a Kenny Rodger’s Roaster, not that we can afford to eat there. Alas, the only thing missing is a McDonalds or Burger King. The most numerous of restaurants in UB are the guanzes. “What the heck is that?” you are probably asking. A guanz is a Mongolian café of sorts. One can find all sorts of traditional Mongolian foods in a guanz. Most of the time, they are also very cheap. Thus these are the restaurants that we eat at the most.
A guanz is usually small sometimes in a building that doesn’t look very sanitary. Once you get by that though, the food is most often delicious and very affordable. While there are many guanzes around our apartment building, two have arrested our attention and patronage. They are located across the street from our building very close to our meeting place and the school that we teach in. Because of this, it has become a habit of ours to eat at one of them at least once or twice a week. When we teach a double workshop, we will eat at one of these places during the hour lunch break. Also, every Sunday after meeting we eat lunch there. We have frequented one so many times that we know the owner, waitresses, and the cook. It is fun to go in some place that often and know the people and they know you.
The most traditional Mongolian food that a person can get at a guanz is called Buuz. Buuz are like dumplings which have meat, generally mutton, and are steamed. Sometimes they might have cabbage or onion, but the traditional way they are made is with only meat and fat. The fat of course becomes liquid when the Buuz is steamed and remains that way as long as it is hot. Because of this, a fresh Buuz will be full of hot liquid, so you have to be careful how you bite into it.
Besides Buuz, another traditional food is Khoshur. Khoshur is a deep-fried meat pie. Sounds good, right!? These are flat and a little larger than the size of your hand. They have less grease than Buuz and, if cooked well, are nice and crispy. They can also be found with potato, cabbage, or kemchi filling, all of which are very nice. One variety that we have never tried is the horse innards Khoshur. Not real sure if we will ever be quite ready for that one!
Another dish that is usually crispy is Bansh. Bansh are like Buuz but a little smaller. They are meat filled dumplings that you can sometimes find steamed but most often fried. Fried Bansh (pronounced sharshan Bansh) is usually drizzled with mayonnaise and served with a Mongolian potato salad and cabbage salad.
Another dish that we like is called Tsooven. It has chunks of meat that have been cooked in oil with carrots, onions, and noodles. The noodles are firmer than most Italian noodles and are more like Oriental noodles. The dish is usually a little dry and tastes even better with some soy sauce on it. Tsooven is very easy to make, so Jennifer has even made this a few times at home. We have also eaten this with a Mongolian family in there ger; however, that meal had a lot more fat than we prefer.
Paroshky is kind of like khoshur but the outside is made with yeast, so the breading gets thicker. Paroshky is not a native Mongolian dish but is more Russian. It is likely that Paroshky became popular during the years of close ties between Mongolia and the Soviet Union. Paroshky usually has meat, rice, and onions but can also be found sometimes with potato and peppers or sausage and egg. This is another one of our favorites!
There are so many other interesting and tasty dishes that this post could go on longer than you would care to read, so we will conclude our list of food items. You can see a few more dishes in the pictures. A good explanation of Mongolian cuisine would not be complete without talking about milk tea. Milk tea (called suuta tsaa in Mongolian) is perhaps the drink of Mongolia. It is served hot which is very nice when the temperature is well below freezing outside. To make it, chips of black tea are scrapped off a block into a pot of water. A large amount of cream, milk, etc. is added. Though it is called tea, the dairy aspect is the predominate element. Some people add butter or animal fat in order to flavor it, and salt is always added. The end product is creamy and salty with a hint of black tea flavor. Though this was not our taste last year, we have become very accustomed to it this year and usually order it whenever we eat at a guanz. We can get instant milk tea packets, but the fresh made stuff is by far the best tasting.
It has been evident this year that our tastes are changing. Things that we tried last year and didn’t like, we are trying again and finding that we enjoy eating them. Though we are not as extreme as Craig, the specific fats and greases of Mongolian food have actually become more appealing and tasty! Who knew!?!
Here are a few more Mongolian food dishes that we enjoy! Hope you enjoy them too!
Next time, we will share our top five funniest foreigner-living-in-Mongolia stories! You won’t want to miss that!!
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