eating in mongolia

Imagine this: Mutton Every Single Meal For A Week.

This was what i thought i will be having in Mongolia. The thought of it alone made me lost all appetite... and so, for the very first time, i decided to pack cup noodles* and biscuits for a trip. What a loser. Heh.

But it turned out, we had lots of varieties!

Breakfast

This is not Spot the Difference. Breakfast for the first 4 days in Uvurkhangai were more or less the same. But as long as there’s bread, i am one happy gal.

Breakfast in Ulaanbaatar (capital city), like the hotel, was much more fanciful.

Salad

Who would have thought there were salad for appetiser! They were so fresh and cherry tomatoes so sweet. Also, the pickled cucumbers in the last picture was very nicely done.

Khuushuur

A type of popular meat pastries in Mongolia. The fillings are usually beef or mutton. But to cater for our foreign taste buds, they did two other additional fillings – carrot & cabbage and potato.

We also tried our hands at making khuushuur and it was quite fun. Mine was the two marked with sad faces... not the ugliest of the lot i would say ;)

Helping to deep fry our masterpieces which consisted of all shapes and sizes lol


Sad but so tasty!

Lunch and Dinner

This was our very first meal in Mongolia, a very westernise lunch. We had the choice of spaghetti with pork or fish fillet.


After lunch, we started our 8-hour long coach journey travelling from the capital to Uvurkhangai. Thus, takeaway dinner – deep fried chicken with rice.


Mutton fried kway teow (flat rice noodle). The mutton taste was rather strong so i picked them out. Overall wasn’t too bad.


Steamed rice with (very tender) chicken, vegetables and fries.


Drumstick with creamy vegetable soup. A tad too salty but still good.


Buuz (minced mutton dumplings). Very strong taste and i can’t stomach this at all. But at least it was pretty to look at.



Khorkhog. A traditional dish of barbecue lamb cooked using hot stones and water. Very delicious! i think this is the only dish that i miss having.


Packed lunch on the coach (returning to Ulaanbaatar).


Back at Ulaanbaatar, we started having meals at different restaurants. The first was this barbecue buffet place. Basically, choose the meat, vegetable and sauce that you like and the chefs will cook it teppanyaki style.




Lunch at Seoul Club was good. Not surprising at all since there are many korean expatriates working in the city.



Modern Nomads Restaurant. The traditional fried noodle that i ordered failed badly, the whole plate was left almost untouched.


Some of the rest of the dishes that my friends ordered. i ended up sharing the chicken with rice which wasn’t too bad :)

*In the end, cup noodles were all given away. Yeay!

home of the nomads

My very first ger-building experience!

On the third day of the trip, we helped... well, just a little... to build a ger* for a homeless family.

This was how the ger was built step-by-step:

1. Attached the two centre pillars to the roof ring with ropes.

A roof ring lets out smoke from cooking fire and allows air to flow

2. Set up the walls using criss-crossed wooden poles.

There are usually six sections (depending on the size of the ger) and need to be tied together

to form a full wall, with a door that faces south (away from the coldest wind). When a nomad

family move on, they can fold these sections and carry them easily.

i can’t help but noticed the beautiful shadow and got a little carried away with shooting :)

3. Attached roof poles from the roof ring to the criss-crossed wall.

4. Secured everything and ta-dah! the skeleton of the ger is up.

5. Layered the exterior with felt and canvas, secured with ropes and the ger was completed!

Max excited when walking into the newly built ger. This was how it looked like from the inside.

The man of the family tied a traditional ceremonial blue scarf (which i guess was for good luck) to

the roof ring. Now, the family can finally all stay together :)

Celebrating with cheese, yogurt, speeches and songs.

One last look at the ger and it was time to leave.

*A ger costs about US$1,000 and can be built under 2 hrs with a group of experience locals. And within this short period of time, we witnessed a small community with strong ties and spirits – friends and families were all very eager to help out. The building process was of joy and love, and i’m truly grateful to be part of it.

Zuunbayan-Ulaan, Mongolia

olympics fever

i’m seriously lack of sleep now with so many games to watch every night. That’s the reason
why the mongolia trip updates are taking forever. Ahhh... and there’s also pictures from
Beijing trip... i might need till end of year bleah!

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

to the middle of nowhere

On the third day, we travelled out of the small town to visit a herder family. There were no road signs (or road!), no shops, no people, except for the one family that we’re visiting. i have absolutely no idea how the driver knew his way around.

Be careful of where you step on

Vast grassland, gorgeous view... and it reminded me of Brokeback Mountain.

Ceiling of a ger.

Exterior of a ger is usually very plain and they looked almost identical. But inside, each

family will customised the wall with colourful printed fabrics and decorations.

i’ve always thought all sheep looked alike... who knows there are so many different breeds,

and all so cute!

Spotted another herd of sheep from afar.

Then they started charging towards us and i panicked...

... luckily they made a turn just before reaching us.

And very orderly, they moved into their designated spot. i was impressed, very impressed.

meh~ meh~

By the end of the visit, we had also tried our hands on cutting homemade cheese curds,

shearing and milking sheep.

Zuunbayan-Ulaan, Mongolia