Culinary updates

Before heading to the taiga I did quite a bit of food shopping. I brought mainly noodles, but also coffee drinks, cereal drinks, bread, candy, peas, tuna, ketchup, buckwheat… As gifts I also took sweets with me, toothbrushes and toothpaste to balance this, drawing supplies for children, mosquito repellent, soap, coffee drinks etc. We first got through my food and the second half of my stay I was totally dependent on local food which I was very happy with. It makes sense to share if one household has more than the neighboring. Zaya and PJ had often a load of people over for dinner.

Before leaving Tsagaannuur for East Taiga an Estonian student living in London brought three apples imported from Chile. Everyone kept telling me they thought the apples were from China. Fresh vegetables were things I came to miss the most, and as soon I got back, I shopped some more for this faint tasting fruit.

For breakfast we usually had bread. Every day Zaya baked fresh bread on the stove. Usually yesterday’s bread lasted at least until dinner time. Warm bread from the stove smelled so amazing but it was forbidden to have it hot because it needed to cool down to be thoroughly baked and not collapse. Here the bread is cooling pressed between the tepee canvas and a pole.

I found a solution to this that turned into somewhat of a new trend– putting a slice of bread on the stove and then covering it with a thick layer of butter. I ate a lot of bread, man. Not unusually for more than one meal. PJ’s aunt made also taiga bread that was very crusty having been baked straight in the ashes. I’m sold to the idea of making bread myself.

One day I went looking for wild onions by the river but also found rhubarb (beyond metaphor as you can see). I had not expected to find rhubarb, in fact, I had not the slightest idea where in the world it would grow in the wild. In the taiga there’s jam made of it but even more commonly it is just toasted on the stove like the bread above and had as a treat.

Some days before my arrival Zaya and PJ got meat that was now drying hanged up one the side of the tepee. We had it often with rice. Or home made tsuivan (noodles): first dough from flour, then formed into pancake-like bread and baked on the stove, then dried/cooled and later chopped up into noodles. Very tasty! Zaya used a lot of garlic and was an excellent cook. She also made taiga’s rice pudding with reindeer milk which we had with sugar. It was so filling I almost skipped meals the next day. Food was always accompanied by milk tea.

On my way back from Tsagannuur to Mörön we stopped at a lady’s mother’s house. This is how detailed it gets. Mongolian diet seems fairly different to Tsaatan as they eat significantly more meat. It was a hearty meal that started with tea and some aaruul – Mongolian dried curd. Just outside I could see almost all phases of aaruul being prepared.