Mongolian Cuisine

Mongolian cuisine is built fundamentally on dairy products, meat and animal fat, with mutton the most common dish in rural areas and steamed meat dumplings called buuz especially popular in cities, a diet shaped by an extreme continental climate and low population density that together favor preserved, high fat foods suited to surviving harsh winters. The fourteenth century court cookbook Yinshan zhengyao documents Mongolian imperial dining at the height of Mongol power and reflects cultural exchange with China, the Islamic world and Central Asia, and notably, Mongolia is one of the few Asian countries where rice is not a dietary staple. The diet centers on domesticated animals, among them cattle, horses, camels, yaks, sheep and goats, supplemented by fermented milk beverages, cheese and yogurt, and by preserved foods such as borts, dried meat, and aaruul, dried curds. Other characteristic dishes include khuushuur, deep fried dumplings, khorkhog, meat cooked with hot stones, and boodog, meat cooked inside a deboned animal carcass, washed down with airag, fermented mare's milk, or suutei tsai, salted milk tea.