Intro to Mongolian cuisine

August 13, 2008 by Karin.

My first time sampling Mongolian cuisine was in a pastel tiled joint in the covered part of the Black Market. Gordon and I had steamed mutton dumplings and stewed mutton topped with a mysterious glossy white chunk. He had warned me about this, the highly regarded fatty sheep tail.

As a guest in many a Mongolian household, he was regularly honored with extra fat on his plate as a way of saying, “You’re our guest. Have this fat and be warm and healthy.”

Someone else had told me that vegetables are still a relatively new phenomenon in Mongolia and regarded with suspicion as a less healthy alternative to meat and dairy.We also ordered a bowl of the popular “suutei tsai,” the milk tea with salt. (a.k.a. salted milk that you keep sipping in hopes of locating a hint of tea).

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