Mongolian Food

Hi all! So, I'm sure everyone is wondering about the food in Mongolia. The traditional Mongolian diet consists of meat, fat, and starches. The meat is usually mutton. Eating at home with my host family, we have had all mutton except for the chicken we've had twice that they bought especially for me. The meals are almost always some variation on mutton, fat, cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, rice and noodles. It's usually a soup or a kind of stir fry. Mongolians believe that meat, fat, and hot food and drink is good for you. There is no trimming of the fat off meat. Last week, I saw a pile of mutton that my host mom had chopped up for dinner, and I thought to myself, "that meat looks really lean." Of course, she then took another slab of meat that was mostly fat and chopped it up too. I made it clear from day one that I don't like the fat (appropriately called ookh in Mongolian). My host mom tries to avoid putting fat in my bowl, and they let me pick out the large chunks of fat and put it in their bowls. My host dad thinks I have gotten sick because I drank cold water (which I buy at the delguur or store next to our house) and don't eat enough fat. Apparently, cold beverages make the stomach turn. It is difficult to eat hot soup and hot tea when it's in the 90s outside! Mongolians have no rules about not combining starches. There is almost always two starches in a meal--potatoes and rice or potatoes and noodles. And there is bread at every meal too. Except for the chunks of fat, the soups and stir fries are good. They taste quite good. Mongolians also use a lot of oil. I sometimes get scrambled eggs for breakfast which are pretty much dripping in oil. When oil is put in the pan, it's usually about 3-4 tablespoons worth. I bet my family goes through 1 32-oz. bottle of oil a week. When I first got here, my host mom would give me a huge bowl of food, the same size bowl as my host dad, and she and my host sister would get the small bowls. It only took a few meals of me not being able to finish the bowl of food when I was able to communicate to my host mom that I only wanted the small bowl. All of my sitemates are having the same experience of being overfed. My host mom says I eat very small meals (jaakhan, jaakhan, she says). I don't know how the Mongolians are not all really fat and walking-heart-attacks. The noodles in meals are usually handmade from flour and water. Sometimes we'll have store bought spaghetti noodles, but usually it's these flour and water noodles. They mix water with flour til it makes a dough and they roll it out (which I learned there is a way to do it so that your dough is a perfect circle). Then there are lots of options. Sometimes the large round, rolled out dough is laid on top of the soup and steamed, and then cut up into pieces after it has cooked. Sometimes it's cut into strips like linguini. Sometimes it's cut into small round circles to make bansh, which are small meat dumplings which are put in soup. And then there are larger round circles which are used to make buuz, which are large meat dumplings. Buuz are like one of two national dishes. They're quite good (if you know what's in them; it's quite the adventure if you don't know what the stuffing is). I had fish buuz last weekend when we visited my host dad's ger by the river out in the countryside. It was really good. There is a trick to pinching buuz and bansh, which I have not been able to master. I was quite the source of entertainment when I tried to pinch bansh. My host dad said I am unable to pinch buuz because I am unmarried. Apparently, Mongolian women cannot do anything competently until they are married. It may be a long while yet before I can competently pinch buuz. Not everything is fatty. We sometimes have kasha (cream of wheat) or buckwheat (cooked in milk) for breakfast. I am grateful for the fiber and the meatless meals every now and then. My host dad has a very traditional Mongolian palate. He always wants meat and fat. We joke about it frequently. He also does not like really sharp flavors. I brought home a bottle of prepared yellow mustard (for egg salad), and Tuya wouldn't even taste it. He said he had some in Russia and it's "hot." The other night Tuya was in UB for the evening so Tsetsgee made us a vegetarian meal with tofu, fake soy meat, cabbage, carrots, onions, and red and green peppers. It was quite tasty. One of our required tasks is that we have to cook an American meal for our host family. I don't really know what to make that doesn't have any sharp flavors. Tuya doesn't like chicken either. I guess I'll figure something out. The food is really pretty good. There's just not that much variety. The Peace Corps said they would provide us with multi-vitamins if we asked for them. All of us at my site asked for multi-vitamins. I'm taking them daily. Well, I bought a cold coke at the delguur next door, so I think I'll go have a glass!