What nomads eat: a guide to Mongolian cuisine

Mongolian food is built on what the steppe actually produces: meat, milk and flour. There is not much room for anything else at 1,300 metres with a four-month growing season, and the cooking that comes out of that constraint is far better than its reputation abroad suggests.

The dishes you will meet

Khorkhog is the one people remember. Lamb, potatoes and carrots are sealed in a milk churn with stones heated in a fire, and cooked from the inside out for an hour. Before eating, everyone passes the hot stones from hand to hand — they are said to be good for you, and they are certainly good for cold fingers.

Buuz are steamed dumplings of minced mutton, onion and garlic, eaten by the dozen at Tsagaan Sar and by the handful the rest of the year. Khuushuur is the same filling, flattened and fried.

Tsuivan is hand-cut noodles steamed over meat and vegetables in one pan — the everyday dinner in most gers.

The dairy half of the table

Summer is the dairy season, and a herder's table in July carries an array of things made from milk that has no real equivalent elsewhere: dried curd (aaruul), clotted cream (öröm) eaten with bread, and fresh yoghurt.

Airag is fermented mare's milk, lightly alcoholic and slightly sour. It is offered to every guest, and refusing outright is awkward — take the bowl with your right hand, touch it to your lips, and pass it back if it is not for you. Nobody minds.

If you do not eat meat

Say so when you book, not on arrival. Outside Ulaanbaatar the shopping is done days in advance, and our guides carry supplies for the trip. With warning, vegetarian meals are straightforward; without it, a herder family will be embarrassed and you will eat a great deal of bread.