Mongolia
Aarts
Аарц
Soft, sharply sour curd left after separating cream and whey from milk, eaten fresh with sugar or dried into aaruul.
eastern-asia
Mongolia
Explore 32 foods connected to Mongolia, from everyday staples to rare local specialties.
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Mongolia Essentials
12 editor-selected foods for understanding the place through what people eat.
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Traditional foods from Mongolia.
32 foods in this view. Filter by category, type, rarity, or search every recorded name.
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Mongolia
Aaruul
Ааруул
Curd pressed into shapes and dried hard on the roof of a ger for weeks, eaten as a sour, chalky snack that keeps indefinitely.
Kyrgyzstan
Airag
Айраг
Mare's milk fermented in a leather or plastic churn and stirred thousands of times, ending mildly alcoholic, fizzy and sharply sour.
Mongolia
Bansh
Банш
Small boiled dumplings of minced meat, eaten in broth, dropped into milk tea, or fried as a snack.
Mongolia
Banshtai Tsai
Банштай цай
Salted milk tea with small meat dumplings boiled directly in it, eaten as a one-bowl breakfast.
Mongolia
Bantan
Бантан
Thick broth with flour rubbed between the palms into crumbs and stirred in, plus minced meat — a restorative soup for the ill and the hungover.
Mongolia
Boodog
Боодог
Boodog is a whole goat roasted inside its hide with heated stones, sealing the meat in steam and fat for a Mongolian herder’s feast.
Mongolia
Boortsog
Боорцог
Wheat dough cut into fingers, knots or twists and deep-fried in fat until dry and hard, barely sweetened and kept in bowls for weeks.
Mongolia
Borts
Борц
Beef or camel cut into long strips and air-dried through the winter without salt until it is hard as wood.
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Budaatai Khuurga
Будаатай хуурга
Rice fried with mutton or beef, onion, carrot and potato in the meat's own fat.
Mongolia
Buuz
Бууз
Steamed dumplings of minced mutton or beef with onion, garlic and plenty of fat, pleated shut so the juices pool inside. Buuz are especially associated with Tsagaan Sar, whose date follows the lunar calendar.
Mongolia
Byaslag
Бяслаг
Fresh pressed cheese made from cow, yak or goat milk curdled with whey, mild, squeaky and lightly sour.
Mongolia
Chanasan Makh
Чанасан мах
Mutton or beef boiled on the bone in salted water with nothing else, served on a communal platter with a knife.
Mongolia
Eezgii
Ээзгий
Curds roasted slowly in their own whey until the milk sugars caramelise and the crumbs turn golden and nutty.
Mongolia
Gambir
Гамбир
Flat pancake of flour, water and fat cooked in a pan and eaten with sugar, jam or clotted cream.
Mongolia
Guriltai Shul
Гурилтай шөл
Mutton broth with hand-cut noodle squares, potato, carrot and onion, seasoned with little beyond salt.
Mongolia
Khailmag
Хайлмаг
Clotted cream heated until the butter separates, then cooked with flour and sugar into a rich, grainy sweet paste.
Mongolia
Khorkhog
Хорхог
Mutton cut on the bone and layered in a sealed milk churn with fire-heated river stones, water and vegetables, then cooked from the inside out.
Mongolia
Khuurga
Хуурга
Mutton or beef sliced and fried hard with onion, potato and carrot in its own fat, served with rice or noodles.
Mongolia
Khuushuur
Хуушуур
Flat half-moon pastry filled with minced mutton and onion, sealed and fried in mutton fat until blistered and golden.
Kayseri, Turkey
Mantı
Мантуу
Tiny dumplings stuffed with spiced minced lamb or beef, boiled and served under a blanket of garlic yogurt. The dish is finished with a pour of sizzling melted butter and a sprinkle of dried mint or red pepper flakes. Kayseri is famous for producing mantı so small that forty fit on a spoon.
Mongolia
Meat Pie Soup
Хуушуурт шөл
Broth of mutton and vegetables served with fried khuushuur alongside for dipping, a roadside driver's meal.
Mongolia
Mongolian Sausage
Хиам
Minced meat, blood and fat packed into intestine and boiled, served in slices alongside boiled mutton.
Mongolia
Shimiin Arkhi
Шимийн архих
Milk distilled from fermented yoghurt or airag in a home still, coming out cloudy, weak and faintly sour.
Mongolia
Shorlog
Шорлог
Mutton or beef cubes threaded on skewers with fat between them and grilled over coals, salted and peppered heavily.
Mongolia
Sülen
Шөл
Mutton broth with sliced meat, root vegetables and sometimes noodles, simmered long and served as the first course of a meal.
Mongolia
Süütei Tsai
Сүүтэй цай
Brick tea boiled with milk, water and salt, sometimes with butter or a spoonful of millet or fat stirred in.
Mongolia
Tarag
Тараг
Cow, yak or sheep milk soured with a starter into a thick, tart yoghurt, eaten plain or with sugar.
Mongolia
Tsagaan Tos
Цагаан тос
White butter made by separating and clarifying the fat from dairy, then keeping the pale, rich product for serving with tea and ceremonial foods. Tsagaan tos is a specialized dairy fat, not a cheese or a sweet cake.
Mongolia
Tsuivan
Цуйван
Hand-rolled wheat noodles cut into strips and steamed over mutton and vegetables, then tossed through the meat and its fat.
Mongolia
Ul Boov
Ул боов
Large stamped shortbread-like cakes stacked in odd-numbered layers and topped with sweets, curds and sugar as the centrepiece of the Tsagaan Sar table. The festival follows the lunar calendar.
Mongolia
Öröm
Өрөм
Milk simmered and left to cool overnight so a thick clotted skin forms, lifted off in a slab and eaten with bread and sugar.