Enter Mongolia

Author: Meng Songlin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Mongolian Milk Tea
I really love drinking milk tea and eating Mongolian dairy products and hand-picked meat. In Mongolia, no matter where you go, you can experience local customs and taste different flavors of Mongolian cuisine. When you're in a good mood, you often enjoy delicious food in a cheerful atmosphere, savoring life. Mongolia has very few vegetables, and they are also quite expensive. People who don’t like meat find it hard to adapt to Mongolian conditions, especially in rural sums, where almost everything is meat, and vegetables are rarely seen. Although Mongolian cuisine is relatively monotonous and not internationally renowned, it is still very distinctive, a blend of Chinese, Mongolian, and Western culinary traditions.
Mongolian cuisine is divided into white food and black food. White food refers to dairy products, while black food refers to meat. It differs slightly from the Mongolian diet in Inner Mongolia, as Mongolian restaurants often have a Western-style ambiance. In Mongolia, small eateries are called "ganzis," just like in Chinese. In Mongolia, you’ll find that Chinese culinary culture has a significant influence on Mongolia. Many dish names are the same as in China, such as cabbage, pickled vegetables, dry bread, buns, steamed buns, and vinegar. You can call them directly even if you don’t understand Mongolian, as Mongolians can understand the Chinese names. This is the result of thousands of years of Han cultural influence on the Mongolian people.
Mongolians are primarily a meat-eating people. After slaughtering cattle and sheep, almost nothing is wasted—whether it’s meat or internal organs. After cleaning and preparing, they cook a variety of delicious dishes. In both cities and pastoral areas, restaurants serve Mongolian foods like milk tea, bread, fried rice, salads, fresh vegetable cans, and lamb noodles. The most extraordinary dishes are roasted whole lamb, steamed lamb backs, and hand-picked meat. However, in Mongolia’s pastoral areas, "hand-picked meat" must be prepared fresh. Fresh beef and lamb are not always available in both cities and pastoral areas, except in winter.
In Mongolia’s pastoral areas, sheep are not killed on Sundays. My Mongolian friend told me that Mongolians rely on livestock for survival, constantly slaughtering sheep, cattle, and sometimes camels and horses, as well as hunting. Their lives are filled with blood and the atmosphere of killing. Therefore, Sundays are days without killing or blood, giving livestock a peaceful day. In some regions of Mongolia, sheep are also not killed after sunset, and these customs vary by region. Perhaps due to the cold, in western Kh?vsg?l Province, almost all meat consumed in winter is horse meat, including horse meat buns and horse meat noodles. In summer, people mostly eat noodle soups or vegetable soups made with air-dried meat. Mongolian roasted lamb heads and lamb racks are delicious and crispy. Especially the roasted lamb with liver, it’s tender, flavorful, and nutritious, making it worth trying. Air-dried meat also has a unique aroma and is very tasty.
Mongolian tea foods are world-famous. Throughout history, Mongolians have been inseparable from milk tea. "Chuan" branded bricks from Hubei, China, are very famous in Mongolia and were even used as currency in ancient times. Whether you know the owner or not, once you enter a yurt, the host will always offer you milk tea. In Mongolia, the taste of milk tea varies by region. In the eastern part, milk tea is made with less tea and no salt, resulting in a light and refreshing flavor. Eastern Mongolians say, "Drinking milk tea like this doesn’t make you thirsty." In the western part, milk tea is made with