The Best Food to Eat in Mongolia
Mongolia isn’t a gastronomic epicentre but it does have a lot of local treats
Mongolia is quickly becoming a bit of a tourist hotspot. Ulaanbaatar, the capital, is home to a fly-in-fly-out workforce of expats from all over the world and with them comes their cuisine, customs and cash.
On most street corners of Ulaanbaatar you’ll find Korean barbecues, Chinese restaurants, pubs of all persuasions and the international chain fast food joints that you come to expect the world over. Ulaanbaatar is a highly multicultural city.
Venture outside of the capital and the international sights and flavours quickly disappear and are replaced by home cooking, nomadic families and local fare.
Mutton
Mongolians don’t eat an animal unless it is older than three years, so you won’t find any of those seemingly quintessential dishes like Mongolian lamb here. Every menu you look at you’ll find a trove of mutton on offer. I didn’t particularly find mutton an enjoyable meat to eat, it was a lot more chewy than tasty but it is a big part of Mongolian cooking.
We shared a whole sheep with a nomadic family in the Mongolian wilderness. We paid the family, our drivers slaughtered the sheep in the most humane way possible, we cooked it with the nomadic family in their big fire place cooker and we all ate together under the stars.
With some of the mutton dishes you’ll often get a big old serving of boiled or steamed veg. Typically root vegetables, cabbage, onion and potatoes are dished up with hefty, chewy chunks of mutton. It is all pretty easy, simple cooking.
Dumplings
I’m stating the bleeding obvious here but dumplings can be found all over the planet and the dumplings served up in Mongolia are otherworldly.
Mongolian dumplings are typically mutton mince wrapped in a blanket of thick dough and then fried. You’ll sometimes find veggie ones but mutton is the most widely available variant. Seasoned with salt and pepper usually and eaten liberally, they’re delicious. We did try some tasty vegan dumplings though and they slayed the tastebuds!
When we ate our Mongolian dumplings they were served with sour cream and a delicious vegetable pickle. They’re very oily and not for the diet conscious.
Food made from horse milk
Mongolians absolutely eat horse meat but it is a seasonal meat. While we were visiting (September 2019) horse wasn’t on the menu so we stuck with mutton. But despite horse meat being seasonal, that doesn’t mean horsey foods aren’t on the menu all year round.
At our nomadic camp in the wilderness we sampled homemade fermented horse milk vodka and horse milk cheese. Both of them tasted like the smell of a horse.
Us Westerners weren’t particularly sold on the fermented horse milk but our drivers loved it. They even bought a six litre jug of the stuff from the nomadic family producing it.
Good strong booze
All this talk of horse vodka leads me to my next point, good strong booze. Being a landlocked country with sizzling hot summers and freezing cold winters has meant Mongolians have developed booze for all seasons.
In the summer time, when temperatures in the deserts reaches 35 degrees celsius, the local drop is the Golden Gobi. It is a German style pale lager that is both light and refreshing, just like so many of the lagers of Asia.
In the winter, when temps in Ulaanbaatar can drop to as low as -20 degrees celsius, the country takes comfort in the excess of locally produced, cheap vokda. Chinggis Khan Vodka is the most famous of them all in the country. It is produced by domestic wheat and mixed with natural Mongolian spring water. The vodka oozes Mongolian patriotism and tastes as strong as the roughest Mongolians you’ll meet.
Cafe society
Surprisingly, Ulaanbaator has a trendy, lively and cosmopolitan cafe and restuarnt scene that rivals any large city.
You’ll find a number of tasty and ethical vegan eateries including the delicious Luna Blanca Restaurant. Make sure you check out their vegan dumplings (pictured above).
If you’re after good coffee, cheap eats and an easy going, chilled out vibe then follow your ears to the sound of the jazz music pumping out of the speakers at The Green Zone. Bathe in the lush green hanging plants as you sample some of the Mongolian capital’s best coffee.
The best views of Ulaanbaatar can be soaked up sipping a stylish New York style cocktail at the Sky 17 Bar. Come for the sunset views and stay for the range of local snacks and well priced cocktails.
