country Essentials · 12 foods
Mongolia Essentials
A considered first route through Mongolia: the foods that carry its everyday habits, celebrations, ingredients, and memory.
Explore all Mongolia foods →THE
ESSENTIALS
The complete shortlist
12 foods to know.
Each selection includes the reason it belongs here—so this is a guide, not just a pile of names.
Mongolia
Buuz
Бууз
Steamed mutton dumplings folded by the hundred for the lunar new year and full of their own broth.
Mongolia
Khuushuur
Хуушуур
Fried mutton pastry sold by the bagful from the Naadam tents in July — the festival's real event.
Mongolia
Khorkhog
Хорхог
Mutton cooked in a sealed milk churn with fire-heated river stones passed around before eating.
Kyrgyzstan
Airag
Айраг
Fermented mare's milk, fizzy and sour, offered with both hands and drunk only in the milking season.
Mongolia
Süütei Tsai
Сүүтэй цай
Brick tea boiled with milk and salt, poured for every visitor before anything is discussed.
Mongolia
Tsuivan
Цуйван
Hand-cut noodles steamed above mutton so they take up its fat, then tossed through the meat.
Mongolia
Chanasan Makh
Чанасан мах
Mutton boiled on the bone in salted water and carved from a shared platter with your own knife.
Mongolia
Aaruul
Ааруул
Curd dried rock-hard on the roof of a ger, sour and chalky, and meant to be sucked rather than bitten.
Mongolia
Boortsog
Боорцог
Fried dough fingers kept in a bowl for weeks and dipped in milk tea or clotted cream.
Mongolia
Öröm
Өрөм
Clotted milk skin lifted off in a slab and eaten with bread and sugar for breakfast.
Mongolia
Borts
Борц
Beef air-dried unsalted through the winter until it is hard as wood, then shaved into soup.
Mongolia
Ul Boov
Ул боов
Stamped cakes stacked in odd-numbered layers as the centrepiece of the Tsagaan Sar table.