Pass the Yak Butter please

I thought I would blog about the culinary experiences I had in Mongolia. I am an adventurer after all so perhaps I should consider food with the same sense of experimentation? - Ya no.

My second food experience in Mongolia was in Ulaan Bataar at a restaurant that was a very large scale Ger (round tent). I reckon this restaurant was created for tourists to give them an authentic Mongolian experience. I think they keep it very colourful and amaze you with contortionists and throat singers so you forget the fact that you're eating mutton. Lamb I don't mind, and yes I'm aware that's the cute little baby I'm eating. But somehow mutton just doesn't have the same appeal to me. This meat was essentially steamed making it less stringy but it was sort of fatty and and wasn't saying "hmm hmmm good".

Oh, first, I must say that many of my travelling companions were quite happy with Mongolian cuisine and cheerfully ate everything that was put in front of them. Me... not so much. I got through my meal and reminded myself that I wasn't in Mongolia for the food. After that first *authentic* experience our guide took us to other ethnic resturants which was fine with me. We ate decent Mexican and Indian food as well. But I always sort of wondered about the meat. What exactly was I eating when it was shrouded in a sauce or diced up with vegetables? A little voice inside would say "Does it really matter?" and my appetite readily agreed that, why yes, it did matter.

On our drive/trek to our basecamp. Our cook Balorma whipped up some great salads and stir fries with vegetables. If the meat was too fatty I just pushed it aside and concentrated on the other *stuff*. I was by no means going to go hungry.

But a few times I tasted a meat that was abit funky to me. It sort of looked like beef and when I ate it it started out *tasting* like beef but would have this tangy kick to it. I knew it wasn't mutton so I'm wondering.. what is this?! That question alone caused me to decide not to eat any more of the mystery meat. Turns out that while back in UB we were at a buffet and one of the animals on the menu was Horse. I do have to admit to asking the woman at the buffet three times what the meat in one particular dish was to confirm. And each time she answered "Horse". But maybe I was just misunderstanding her accent see... I think she lost patience with me when I actually Whinnied at her to confirm for the 3rd time that it was in fact Horse. She looked at me like I was a lunatic and replied yet again: "Horse!". I know the French eat Horse and even the French-Canadians back east eat Horse. My family is French-Canadian and we never ate any god-damn Horse and I have no interest in eating what I call an "animal friend". Maybe this is a silly distinction and I'm sure Mr Pig and Mr Cow would love me to eat more Horse. But Pig and Cow aren't my friends, while Horses, Cats and Dogs are, so I prefer not to see any of them on my dinner plate. I suspect that my funky "mystery meat" during our trek was most likely Black Beauty.

The Mongolians love horses so much they also like to drink fermented Horse milk called Airak. *Fermented* is a nice term for sour. They really love their sour Horse milk. We were invited to a nomadic family's Ger and as is custom, they served us all Airak. (picture shown) This presented a slight problem, the first time I took a tiny sip of Airak the day before, I almost spit it out and made an icky face and thrashed around abit. I had a reasonable idea that this behaviour would be unacceptable. So how to drink the Airak and look like I'm enjoying it... Luckily we were all in the Ger and none of us were being individually scrutinized. I did a combo "Hold-my-breath-don't-breath-as-I swallowed-the-Airak". The result was a slight tang in my throat but I was able to drink and keep a smile on my face. Whew!

In another Ger we were presented with Milk Tea which is interesting as well. It's basic tea that has lots of milk and salt in it rather than sugar. While it tasted different, it wasn't hard to drink. These folks also had dried Yak Curds for us and some deep fried treats. I opted for the deep fried treat and decided to try the butter. Looked like butter, tasted like butter, you just had to ignore the Yak hair on the end of the spoon and all would be well.

I think we were all touched by the generosity displayed by the Mongolian people we met. They were more than willing to invite 12 tourists into their home and serve us Tea, Milk and what have you. Mongolian style of food has evolved out of centuries of cooking with what they have and their nomadic lifestyle. Animals are portable and provide for most of their dietary needs.

There are many things I'll remember fondly about Mongolia, food I'll remember as a "Character Building" experience!