Mongolians say: meat is for people, grass is for animals! But the price of cabbage in Mongolia is comparable to that of mutton

Hello everyone, I'm reading the world, there are a lot of readers private letter to me Mongolia's beef and sheep meat products, dairy products, as well as a variety of special fruits and vegetables to eat and use. Today, I will give you a systematic introduction to the food culture of Mongolia, Full text 4500 words, no nonsense, expected to read in ten minutes.

Mongolia, or Mongolia for short, is a landlocked country surrounded by China and Russia. The capital and largest city of the country is Ulaanbaatar. This is a country close to the north of the country, although close, and in history and we have a lot of origin, but in the diet of this piece is very different, Mongolians often say: "Meat is for people to eat, grass is for animals.

Here is a detailed description of the Mongolian food culture

The Mongolian diet has a very close relationship with its long history of nomadic culture, and is also influenced by the food of Russia, China and other Central Asian countries. Mongolian staples are boiled mutton, Tibetan dumplings and tea mixed with goat's, cow's, camel's or horse's milk. Much of the food is greasy, and treating low cholesterol has never been a problem in Mongolia. But there is also a relative shortage of vegetables and fruits here. Firstly, in the Mongolian consciousness, the land should be planted with grass, food for livestock, and secondly, Mongolia's climate is similarly unsupportive of most vegetables and fruits.

Dairy products are an important dietary item for Mongolians. They refer to dairy products as white food and meat products or animal flesh as red food. Raw materials for white foods include milk from cows, horses, sheep, goats, camels and reindeer; horse milk is the most nutritious of all types of milk, and horse milk wine is also very popular in Mongolia

The most common item in Mongolia is mutton, and the stench of mutton is ubiquitous in the country, permeating every corner, even on money. Mutton appears on the menu of any restaurant in Mongolia. In addition to mutton, all parts of the sheep, including the heart, intestines, kidneys, eyeballs, brain, head and tail are eaten, and the head of the sheep is considered a delicacy. Chicken and pork are not eaten much. Mongolians generally do not eat horse meat (Kazakhs eat horse sausage), but eat beef and goat meat, and in some places people eat camel meat.

Traditionally, Mongolians did not eat bread, vegetables or fruits, but under the influence of their surroundings, most Mongolians started to accept these new foods. Some Mongolians still refuse to eat vegetables "for health reasons". Breads and pastries were introduced from the Russians and incorporated into their own culinary dishes, which featured milk and flour, meat and flour baked in sour cream, and steamed meat pies made from sweet dough.

In 2012, The Economist reported, "One glance at Mongolia's agricultural output tables gives a vivid sense of how difficult it is for vegetarians to survive here. Three meats top the list : mutton, beef and goat. Potatoes do well, above camel meat but below horse meat. Carrots, cabbage and onions are featured, but only as afterthought statistics. The title of a discussion thread on an internet forum aptly summed it up: 'Mongolia: the least vegetarian place in the world'

In Mongolia, a few vegetarian dishes are available almost exclusively in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, at the Indian Curry House, a variety of Western and Chinese restaurants.

The demand for meatless food in restaurants usually causes curiosity and confusion among those around them. The Mongolian newspaper UB Post estimates that there are 2,500 vegetarians in the country. According to other reports, the number of vegetarians may exceed 30,000. Prof. Oyuntsetseg of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST) told UB Post that stroke and stomach and liver cancers are the leading causes of death in Mongolia, and that a vegan diet would help reduce the risk.

Vegetables will be plentiful where many people are, but they will also be expensive. A cabbage is over fifty dollars, not to mention fruit. There are almost no vegetables where I am, and there is no place to buy them even if you have money. There are only the four main things in Mongolia: potatoes, carrots, scallions, and daikon. Occasionally there are not so fresh big chili peppers and small persimmons, big chili peppers are five dollars RMB each, small persimmons are more than ten dollars a catty.

White food is a silvery-white food called "Chagan Yide" in Mongolian, or "white food" in Chinese. It is usually made from the pure milk of horses, cows, sheep or camels. It comes in many varieties and is considered very tasty and nutritious by Mongolians, who say it has "the good qualities of hundreds of foods". Mongolian milk food is considered as daily food, served to guests at banquets and as religious offerings. Mongolian milk food and the way it is prepared varies from region to region, but it mainly consists of milk skin, cream, cheese and milk tofu.

Milk skin, "Wu Rimo" in Mongolian, is made from pure milk. How to make it: 1) Pour fresh milk into a pot and bring it to a boil over a slow fire. 2) Then, mix it with a spoon and pour fresh milk into the pot from time to time. 3) The fire can't be extinguished until curds appear and float on the surface. 4) After a couple of hours, the milk is mixed with a spoon and the curd is removed from the pot. 5) After the curd is removed from the pot, it can be removed from the pot. 4) After a few hours, after the milk skin has solidified, slowly pick it up with chopsticks and dry the water embedded in it.5) Fold it in half.6) When dry, it can be offered as food. The Mongols and many Chinese believed that milk skins were not only nutritious but also had medical value. In the Yuan Dynasty's Dietary Preparations, it is written, "Milk skin is cool and refreshing, and is good for clearing the lungs. In addition to satisfying your thirst and preventing you from coughing, it helps darken and lighten your hair color and is also effective in treating vomiting of blood."

Cream and Butter can be prepared and cooked in a variety of ways and has many different names. Usually, it is fermented from fresh milk kept in buckets, pans or other containers. To make cream and butter: 1) After the milk has turned sour, stir the milk continuously with a stick until the milk and oil separate. 2) Remove the white fat that floats to the top, which is the cream. Mongolians say that cream tastes good if it is mixed with food or fried with rice or noodles.3) If the cream is heated in a boiler and stirred slowly, butter is extracted. This is butter. The stuff under the butter is ghee residue. Mongolians and Tibetans consider butter to be the essence of milk because it contains many nutrients and helps to relieve the body and mind for spiritual peace. In addition, butter moisturizes the lungs, relaxes muscles and joints, brightens the eyes and prolongs life.

Mongolian cheese is more or less the same as yogurt. To make it: 1) Pour fresh milk into a container, such as a jar, pot or basin. 2) After allowing the milk to gradually ferment and coagulate, the curds separated from the whey are cheese. In the Chifeng region, they make cheese by 1) heating fresh milk in a boiler; 2) then mixing it with a spoon while separating the floating foam and putting it into another pot, where it solidifies and turns into cheese (yogurt). Cheese can be eaten alone or mixed with rice or other foods. Mongolians say it is very tasty and it also relieves the summer heat and also helps to rejuvenate people.

Milk Tofu is a way of making tofu from milk: to make it: 1) Yogurt that has been extracted from cream is poured into a pot and boiled so that the water in it evaporates. 2) After the milk has solidified, it is placed in a mold. It is usually eaten after drying in the sun or in a cool place. Another way to make it is to 1) heat and cool the yogurt, then strain and squeeze it into a piece of coarse cloth. 3) press it into different shapes. Depending on the preparation process, the flavor of milky tofu is usually sweet or sour , and the flavor will be better if sugar is added;. Dried tofu can be stored for a long time. It can be stir-fried with rice, used to make milk tea, and taken as solid food on the ranch or on long trips.

Mongolians traditionally do not use chopsticks to eat. They usually use a spoon, fork or knife or just their hands. Cooked meat was passed around in a large communal **** bowl with a knife. Today, in Inner Mongolia and other parts of China, many Mongolians eat with chopsticks and observe the same food customs as the Chinese.

Upon entering the yurt, guests are served milk tea in a bowl, as well as a plate of food containing a variety of cheeses, breads, and crackers. Guests accept what is offered to them with their right hand, with their left hand providing support at the elbow; pick things up with an open hand and an upward-facing palm; and place their tea bowl at the bottom rather than the top. Visitors should respond to their host family's hospitality by taking at least a small piece or taste of what is offered to them. To do otherwise would be considered very rude. At the same time, do not devour everything in front of you. An empty bowl or an empty plate is a sign that there is not enough to eat. If you don't want to hold out and walk away, it's best to leave a little in your bowl or plate. Kazakhs show that they don't want more by putting their hands on the bowl or plate.

"Stew" is the traditional Mongolian way of eating meat. To make the stew, first, the meaty lamb is deboned, sacrificed, skinned, and the internal organs as well as the head and head removed. Then, the whole sheep is cut into several large pieces and the meat is stewed in boiling water for a while. When the water boils and the meat is fully cooked, it is removed and placed on the table on a large platter.

Everyone cuts the meat into small pieces with a Mongolian knife. The traditional way for nomads to show respect, love, and hospitality to their guests is to offer a toast and serve stew made by hand. Honored guests entering a yurt are usually given a silver bowl or gold cup filled with kumis or tea and a piece of long silk used by Tibetans and Mongolians as a gift of greetings, sometimes accompanied by a song of greetings to guests from far away. If the guest does not want to drink, he is expected to praise the flavor of the other food and return the bowl or cup to the host. If the guest refuses to do so, it is seen as a great insult to the host.

Traditionally, lamb, soup and dumplings are served at all Mongolian meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A meal without them is considered incomplete. Mongolians start the day with a light breakfast (milk tea) between 7:30 and 8:30 am. Lunch is served between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. and usually consists of mutton, noodle soup or dumplings. Sunday meals tend to be larger and have more dishes. Dinner is usually served between 6:30pm and 8:00pm and usually centers around some sort of lamb dish.

The standard meal on the train is borscht, rice and a slice of overcooked beef, fresh chili peppers, cooked potatoes, a piece of tough meat, zucchini, sweet rolls and tea. Typical meals at yurt camps include cabbage salad, noodle soup, stew, rice, cookies and beer. Picnic meals on the prairie include corn salad, noodle soup, beef and rice and orange desert. Fresh milk and yogurt are usually purchased from pastures in the area.

Mongolians traditionally used to eat meat every day. If they don't eat meat for a few days, they become grumpy and out of sorts. After stuffing themselves with mutton, they are happy again. Sometimes horse meat is eaten, but this is usually only during religious ceremonies and festivals, as the horse enjoys a near-sacred status among the Mongols. As a people of the steppe, they traditionally roast their meat over an open fire - or boil it if it's not so tender Goats or lambs can be roasted whole, or in sections, such as a leg of lamb.

Mongolian hot pot is a traditional winter dish throughout northern China . Frozen tofu, vermicelli noodles, beef and lamb are cooked in a hot pot with other ingredients and spices in boiling oil and broth. It is not a Mongolian dish as it is an adaptation of a Chinese dish. At hot pot restaurants, customers often cook ingredients in their own individual pots or in pots heated by a burner under the table for group consumption. When the ingredients are ready, you use chopsticks to remove them from the pot, dip them in a flavorful sauce, and pop them into your mouth. Hotpot was created by nomads on the Mongolian steppe. Besides hotpot, Mongolian barbecue is also popular, where meat, poultry and vegetables are picked by customers and served on a large grill.

The ample size of the Mongolian Grill skillet allows for several diners' food to be cooked simultaneously in different parts of the skillet. Each dish will be stirred in turn as the operator walks around the outside of the grill and turns each diner's food continuously. When cooking is complete, each finished dish is ladled into a bowl and handed to the diner. Many Mongolian grill restaurants utilize an "all-you-can-eat" buffet format.

Some Mongolians consider eating fish to be taboo. This is a Tibetan custom. Eating fish is as abhorrent to Tibetans as eating pork is to Muslims or eating beef is to Hindus. Tibetans don't eat fish for several reasons.1) Fish sometimes eat the bodies of the dead ("water burial" - dumping the body in a lake where fish can eat it - is one of five ways to dispose of a body).2) Water is considered sacred (fishing disturbs the water);3) Fish don't have tongues, so they cannot gossip. Tibetans abhor gossip.

The best and most wholesome food is usually found in expensive hotel restaurants or restaurants catering to foreign tourists. A restaurant run by a local family and sidewalk stalls usually sell boiled mutton and dumplings and little else.

Many new restaurants have opened in recent years. These sometimes offer a wide variety of food, along with good service. Often the best food is home cooked food served in hotels or ger camps. Most modern style Mongolian restaurants serve Russian and European dishes.

In Ulaanbaatar, you can enjoy European, Chinese and Korean cuisine. There are even some Japanese and Mexican restaurants. Outside of Ulan Bator, if you are lucky enough to find a restaurant. What you will find are mainly eateries selling lamb, soups and dumplings.

Smoking is usually allowed in restaurants and alcohol is sold. Mongolians do not use chopsticks to eat. They usually use spoons, forks or knives or just their hands. In many ordinary restaurants, the menu is usually redundant, considering that usually they can choose only one or two meals. Some restaurants turn into bars with lots of drinks and alcohol in the evening. Menus with prices are usually not on the table.