Meals | Steppe Mongolia

MEALS DURING A TRIP

They say that in Mongolia we don't eat well, but in truth, we eat very well.

From 4 people, a chef prepares meals for the group. Otherwise, the Mongolian team does the cooking.

We will offer you Mongolian dishes and Western dishes (with vegetables and fruits) according to the tastes of the customers. Even for vegetarians, this will not cause problems.

Breakfasts are classic, with tea, coffee, pastries and cakes, jam, honey, spread, cereals for children, etc.

WHAT DO THE MONGOLIANS EAT?

Mongolian cuisine is a fairly simple cuisine, mainly limited by the arid regions of the Mongolian plateau, be it the steppe, which covers the majority of these regions, the Gobi desert and the khangai. The majority of food comes from animals, whether for their meat, their fat or the dairy products they produce. Millet is the main cereal in Mongolia, but barley and wheat are also used. Fruits and vegetables are almost absent from the kitchen.

MEAT BASED FOODS

Traditionally, Mongols only eat grass-grazing animals. Since fish can eat insects, they are avoided.
Le mouton est probablement la viande la plus fréquemment consommée, mais on consomme également de la marmotte sauvage.

Among the cooking methods, there are:

Mongolian hot pot. The meat is cooked in water, a method that influenced Chinese cuisine, via the Mongols, the Jurchens (now Manchus).

Khorkhog (хорхог), the meat is enclosed in a metal milk can which is heated.
The boodog (боодог), the abdominal cavity of a previously deboned sheep or marmot is used for cooking meat.
Beshbarmak (Kazakh: Бешбармак), a dish originally eaten by Kazakhs, including those in Mongolia.

FLOUR-BASED FOODS

Khuushuur is a donut, a dish made from wheat flour, stuffed with mutton, yak or beef, or even goat meat, and fried in oil. It is notably tasted on the occasion of the Naadam.

The mantuu is a small white bread, totally identical to the Chinese mantou.

Buuz are ravioli with mutton or beef, onions and fat. During the New Year, a Mongolian family makes around 1000 buuz.
Tsuivan is a pasta dish that includes meat, meat fat (half) and some vegetables (carrots, peppers...). It is the only traditional Mongolian dish that includes vegetables.
There is no real Western-style sweet dessert. Boortsog are donuts spread with öröm (a kind of milk cream)

TSAGAAN SAR AND DESSERTS

Typical meal of Tsagaan Sar
During the Tsagaan Sar ("white month"), we eat "white", in other words milk-based foods, as opposed to the "brown-grey" foods represented by meats. We eat all the same a whole boiled mutton.

In all homes, are made on the altar, pyramids based on sole cakes, and a "hospitality plate", composed of pyramids of these same cakes, sugar cubes, dried cheese and other dairy products and sweets. This plate is offered to the visitor who must be content to peck at the top, generally taking a little öröm, and pieces of cake.

TRADITIONAL DRINKS

MILK TEA

Süütei tsai is a milk tea, usually salty, but sometimes also sweetened, using black tea, sometimes with the addition of butter (massal), to which millet is usually added fried and eaten with different types of dried yogurt sweets, as well as different dry products that we put in it: balls of millet and small crispy vermicelli which give a tangy taste to the tea. In some regions, fried and malted barley, forming a powder, is also used in milk tea, as in Tibet, but also for porridge.

MILK ALCOHOL

Aïrag or aïrak: fermented mare's milk.
Arkhi is an eau-de-vie obtained by distillation of milk, cow's milk, sheep's milk or mare's milk. In Mongolia, replaced more and more often by industrial vodka, which can now also be referred to by this name.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

There are different dairy-based foods. They can consist of dried cheese, dried curd (or yogurt), they are dry and hard. Made with cream and yogurts, they are relatively low in fat. They are usually slightly sweet and sometimes tart and eaten by sucking them or dipping in milk.