Local Dishes

1. Бууз

   Buuz

   Buuz (steamed mutton dumpling)

   Usage

   The everyday Mongolian dish. Minced meat wrapped in dough and steamed; the filling is nearly always mutton. Families make hundreds of them for Tsagaan Sar

2. Банш

   Bansh

   Bansh (small boiled dumpling)

   Usage

   Smaller than buuz and either boiled or steamed. Put into broth it becomes banshtai shöl; put into milk tea, banshtai tsai

3. Банштай шөл

   Banshtai shöl

   Dumpling soup

   Grammar Note

   The suffix -tai / -tei / -toi means "with", its shape set by vowel harmony. Bansh takes -tai. The same pattern gives guriltai shöl (noodle soup) and süütei tsai (milk tea)

4. Хуушуур

   Khuushuur

   Khuushuur (deep-fried meat pastry)

   Usage

   Minced meat with vegetables and salt, sealed in dough, flattened and fried. It is the standard stall food at the summer Naadam festival

5. Цуйван

   Tsuivan

   Tsuivan (steamed noodles with meat)

   Usage

   Meat, vegetables and onion fried in oil then steamed together with cut noodles. It has no broth and is the dish you meet most often at rural canteens and ger camps

6. Гурилтай шөл

   Guriltai shöl

   Noodle soup with meat

   Usage

   An everyday soup of hand-cut noodles boiled with mutton. It uses the same noodles as tsuivan but keeps the broth; on canteen menus it sits under shöl

7. Хорхог

   Khorkhog

   Khorkhog (meat cooked with hot stones)

   Usage

   Prepared by layering cut meat and red-hot stones in a sealed container, seasoning with onion, and letting it cook in its own juices. It is a dish for guests and takes hours. Holding the hot stones in your palms before eating is a customary gesture said to be good for you

8. Боодог

   Boodog

   Boodog (goat or marmot cooked inside its own skin)

   Usage

   Goat (yamaany boodog) or marmot (tarvagany boodog) is boned through the neck so the skin stays a bag, filled with red-hot stones and roasted over open flame. A Mongolian dish of honour (хүндэтгэлийн хоол). Note: marmots carry plague, so travellers should avoid the hunted version

9. Хуурга

   Khuurga

   Khuurga (stir-fry without broth)

   Usage

   Meat or vegetables cut small and fried in oil, with no broth. Menus list it with the filling in front: makhan khuurga (meat), tömstei khuurga (potato), baitsaatai khuurga (cabbage)

10. Ууц

    Uuts

    Uuts (whole sheep back and rump)

    Usage

    As a dish, it is the whole back-and-rump piece of a slaughtered sheep, the centrepiece of a Mongolian feast and the highest-status dish on the Tsagaan Sar table, carved in a set order. Note another meaning is the lower back of a person or animal, so the same word turns up in body-part talk

11. Борц

    Borts

    Borts (air-dried meat)

    Usage

    Meat cut into thin strips and dried in the open air. It is laid down in winter, then crumbled into soups and bantan. Also sold as a souvenir

    Grammar Note

    Note: it has a figurative sense "gaunt, wizened" (borts shig = thin as dried meat). Do not apply it to a person

12. Бантан

    Bantan

    Bantan (flour-crumb soup)

    Usage

    Flour rubbed into crumbs and boiled into a broth. It is light on the stomach and served when you are unwell or hungover; bortstoi bantan (with dried meat) is the usual form

    Grammar Note

    Note: figuratively it means "a mess" (kholion bantan = utter confusion), so make the food context clear

13. Мантуу

    Mantuu

    Mantuu (steamed bun)

    Usage

    Leavened dough that has been steamed. It has no filling and is eaten alongside meat dishes or dipped in soup. Borrowed from Chinese mantou

14. Боорцог

    Boortsog

    Boortsog (fried dough biscuit)

    Usage

    Flour pastry cooked in oil. It is only lightly sweet and is dunked in milk tea — compare the expression boortsog khövüülekh, "to float boortsog in the tea". Every ger you visit will offer it

15. Ул боов

    Ul boov

    Ul boov (stacked sole-shaped cake)

    Usage

    A moulded boov flat like a shoe sole. It is arranged as the dish of honour on the ceremonial platter (tavgiin idee); the stacked platter is the centrepiece of the Tsagaan Sar table

16. Гамбир

    Gambir

    Gambir (fried flour pancake)

    Usage

    A flour flatbread fried with little fat. It turns up at breakfast and with tea

17. Цагаан идээ

    Tsagaan idee

    Tsagaan idee (the white foods, i.e. dairy)

    Usage

    Food made from livestock milk — the collective term covering aaruul, byaslag, öröm, tarag and eezgii. You will see it as a heading on menus and souvenir shelves; in summer it is the core of the herding diet

18. Ааруул

    Aaruul

    Aaruul (dried milk curd)

    Usage

    Aarts cut, pressed into moulds and dried. It is very hard and sour — let it soften in your mouth rather than biting it. You will see it drying in the sun on ger roofs

19. Хурууд

    Khuruud

    Khuruud (large dried curd)

    Usage

    Pressed aarts cut into pieces and dried — a larger form of aaruul. It sits on the same shelf but comes in big slabs

20. Ээзгий

    Eezgii

    Eezgii (simmered and dried milk curd)

    Usage

    Milk curdled, simmered down and then dried in sun and wind. It is coarser and nuttier than aaruul; khoniny eezgii is from sheep milk, ükhriin eezgii from cow

21. Бяслаг

    Byaslag

    Byaslag (pressed fresh cheese)

    Usage

    Milk curdled, strained and pressed to squeeze out the whey. Unlike dried aaruul it is moist and unsalted; eaten on bread or with tea

22. Өрөм

    Öröm

    Öröm (Mongolian clotted cream)

    Usage

    The fatty layer that forms on the surface of boiled milk. At breakfast it is spread on bread or boortsog and sugared. It is the richest of the dairy foods

23. Хайлмаг тос

    Khailmag tos

    Khailmag (melted öröm stirred with flour)

    Usage

    Öröm melted and stirred together with flour, usually sweetened and eaten as a dessert. Note that khailmag alone can also mean "molten" (of metal), so show the full khailmag tos

24. Тараг

    Tarag

    Tarag (yoghurt)

    Usage

    Boiled milk soured with a starter. It is unsweetened and sharply sour, so people add sugar; in summer gers it is home-made

25. Аарц

    Aarts

    Aarts (strained curd)

    Usage

    Tarag or airag boiled to curdle, with the whey strained off. Eaten as it is, and also the raw material for aaruul and khuruud

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