Well, I had my first taste of marmot. My host dad, Tuyakho, loves to hunt marmot with his buddies. He goes frequently to the countryside. This time he and his buddies brought the marmot home to cook and eat. They cooked it the traditional way by stuffing it with hot rocks and then blow torching off the hair. I did not see the first part, the stuffing of the hot rocks. But I did see the blow torching off the hair. They did all this in our backyard. For those of you who don't know, a marmot is a large rodent. It looks like an oversized guinea pig. The one they had yesterday was small, I'm told. It was about the size of a cat (at least when bloated with hot rocks and being blow torched). After all the hair is blow torched, they cut it open and remove meat and rocks. It looked like to me that there were just chunks of meat on the inside, but I can't be sure of that. I got a chunk just removed from the inside. It wasn't too bad, but it was tough. I think it tasted like gamey old shoe leather. And of course, the Mongolians ate the fat with it. I did not. Tuyakho's friends asked me to come out in the yard and join them in the eating and drinking vodka. I took a sip of the vodka that was offered me (it is rude to refuse) and one bite of the marmot. That was enough for me. I was also given one of the hot rocks that cooked the marmot. It is supposed to be good for the body. You pass it back and forth between your hands til it cools down. Then you put it in a plastic bag and put the rock in your pants next to your stomach. I guess it cures what ails you (which of course could be the marmot, ironically!). I felt a little silly with a rock in my pants, but when in Mongolia... I washed my hands about 4 times after that. The rock is greasy and smells like you might imagine a wild, torched rodent would smell like. It was a little difficult to get the smell off my hands. I also did not break out in plague boils. Marmots carry the black plague--yes, that black plague from the Dark Ages. I heard that 4 or 5 people a year die from the plague after having eaten an infected marmot. My host dad eats it all the time, so I took the risk and lived to tell the tale. I'm going to try to post my pictures now. You've got to see these, especially you, Sarah!
Well, I had my first taste of marmot. My host dad, Tuyakho, loves to hunt marmot with his buddies. He goes frequently to the countryside. This time he and his buddies brought the marmot home to cook and eat. They cooked it the traditional way by stuffing it with hot rocks and then blow torching off the hair. I did not see the first part, the stuffing of the hot rocks. But I did see the blow torching off the hair. They did all this in our backyard. For those of you who don't know, a marmot is a large rodent. It looks like an oversized guinea pig. The one they had yesterday was small, I'm told. It was about the size of a cat (at least when bloated with hot rocks and being blow torched). After all the hair is blow torched, they cut it open and remove meat and rocks. It looked like to me that there were just chunks of meat on the inside, but I can't be sure of that. I got a chunk just removed from the inside. It wasn't too bad, but it was tough. I think it tasted like gamey old shoe leather. And of course, the Mongolians ate the fat with it. I did not. Tuyakho's friends asked me to come out in the yard and join them in the eating and drinking vodka. I took a sip of the vodka that was offered me (it is rude to refuse) and one bite of the marmot. That was enough for me. I was also given one of the hot rocks that cooked the marmot. It is supposed to be good for the body. You pass it back and forth between your hands til it cools down. Then you put it in a plastic bag and put the rock in your pants next to your stomach. I guess it cures what ails you (which of course could be the marmot, ironically!). I felt a little silly with a rock in my pants, but when in Mongolia... I washed my hands about 4 times after that. The rock is greasy and smells like you might imagine a wild, torched rodent would smell like. It was a little difficult to get the smell off my hands. I also did not break out in plague boils. Marmots carry the black plague--yes, that black plague from the Dark Ages. I heard that 4 or 5 people a year die from the plague after having eaten an infected marmot. My host dad eats it all the time, so I took the risk and lived to tell the tale. I'm going to try to post my pictures now. You've got to see these, especially you, Sarah!
Is gamey old shoe leather worse than regular old shoe leather?
ReplyDeleteLove the new pics! ...the marmot ones are a little gross (interesting, but gross), but the rest are just plain awesome!
Oh goodness...you are more of a woman then I!! After reading about all the food there. I think I would be considered very rude. I doubt I could eat any of it! LOL. Sounds like you are having great experiences. Thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteShari