About Meals

Nowadays, everyone tries to eat organic food. Mongolians are rich in five kinds of animals: horses, camels, cattle, sheep and goats. Nomads raise their herds on the wide-open grassy steppes. Mongolians raise more than 55 million livestock in total that is 100% organic. You can taste the quality of the meat in every bite. Basic food items for nomads are meat and dairy products.  Khorhog is prepared by cutting up the meat of the sheep and goat placing it in a container together with hot stones, while heating from the outside. Some people add and fixed many kinds of vegetables also pepper and salt. Boodog - The national traditional cuisine includes dishes suitable for nomadic conditions, requiring very little equipment to prepare, with some dishes being prepared with no pots, using animal skin as a container, under name as "Boodog". The old custom of treating guests by presenting a whole sheep or goat contained in khorkhog or boodog is still very much alive. There are also dishes prepared by only meat and flour such as buuz, bansh, bantan, nuudle soup and khuushuur. Buuz – large dumplings made of dough, filled with meat, onion and garlic and steamed for 20 min. Buuz are widely served particularly at Tsagaan sar, the Mongolian Lunar New year, when people prepare in advance large quantities dumplings for their guests. Khuushuur – large filled pockets, fried or deep fried. Bansh - smaller version of buuz, it also may be boiled in a soup. Mongolian nomads usually consume dairy products in the summer time when they also rarely eat dried meat. The main reason for the heavy focus on dairy products in summer is the need to consume milk and its derivatives before they get spoiled in the summer heat. Herders also refrain from slaughtering their animals in hot weather since the meat can become spoiled in a very short time. Fermentation of horse milk produces a sour drink, called airag. The other important drink is tea, boiled with milk and salt. It could be prepared as a soup with rice and dried meat in some regions. Visit Mongolia provides a selection of the best available local restaurants in cities and popular destinations. Over the past few years, Mongolians have begun to eat Asian-origin spicy dishes in urban areas and the number of restaurants offering such cuisine have increased. Most of our trips include all meals and we dine at local restaurants whenever possible. When you are in Ulaanbaatar, you can eat out in number of restaurants serving Indian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, English, French, German, Russian, Latin American and of course Mongolian cuisines. A diverse selection of food items is also available in stores. When you stay in Ger camps, the camps provide meals of mostly western cuisine. Sometimes there are not many choices of meals for tourists in Ger camps due to their remote locations. We provide all food supplies for our adventure treks. Meals will be prepared by our experienced cooks in open-air. There will be a chief and an assistant cook according to the number of clients in groups. We buy different kinds of meat (beef, mutton, chicken) with noodles, rice, and vegetables in Ulaanbaatar and the centers of provinces, soums or from local families, and take them with us on your trip. If you have any special diet, requirements we make arrangements with pleasure. So please notify us at the time of your booking. Vegetarians or low-fat diets can be catered for, but we require as much notice as possible. It is also available to have traditional dairy products such as milk tea (suutei tsai), fermented mare's milk (airag), Mongolian yogurt, dried milk curds (aaruul), handmade sour cream (tsotsgii) and handmade cheese (byaslag) when you visit with nomad herder families. Water quality in Mongolia is generally good, but you are advised to buy mineral water. Bottled mineral waters are available from supermarkets, food markets and mini shops in Ulaanbaatar and many of the province centers and tourist Ger camps in the countryside.