Get ‘ya grub on!
Some friends & I visited Broadway Restaurant in Ulaanbaatar, and feasted on this traditional Mongolian platter—featuring buuz, khuushuur, Mongolian lamb, fresh salad, and more!
Of course, one question I heard most from family & friends when I first arrived here was, “so, what’s the food like?”. Luckily, I’m not a picky eater, and am also a fan of expanding my palate (to an extent), so I knew that many food adventures were ahead by living in an Asian country & actually trying the authentic foods.
Unfortunately, I got food poisoning from shrimp within my first 12 hours here :-( Only I would come to a landlocked country and order seafood! It sucks though, because seafood is definitely one of my favorite foods. Even after the food poisoning, I was still willing to take the risk by ordering sushi & salmon from time to time. But yes, my new boss & his wife took me out to dinner my very first evening here, and I was out of commission for the next couple of days, thanks to shrimp alfredo pasta. Here’s the catch—the pasta wasn’t even served with shrimp; I had it added! Lesson learned, and I haven’t been back to that restaurant since.
Up until COVID-19 caused school closings, the cafeteria food at my school was the meal I looked forward to the most! I mean, they truly fed these kids well! Full-course meals, including soup, salad, and dessert; no processed foods, all fresh. I would show pictures of our school lunch to many of my educator friends back in the states, and their responses would be, “that is how students should eat at school”. For so long, I had been subjected to the “quality” of food served to my students in U.S. public schools; the cafeteria food here caught me by surprise—pleasantly. Take a look for yourself below!
A KFC meal I had; it’s a Twister inside the wrapper.
Eating out was always an adventure as well, more specifically with the "American” food chains. KFC, Pizza Hut, and Burger King are very popular internationally, especially in Asia. These three had locations within walking distance from my place. And because I was still slightly traumatized from my first eating episode and sickness here, I often frequented the tried & true. However, it was interesting to see the different menu items because of the geographical location and what’s popular in this region. Case & point: Pizza Hut offered a bulgogi pizza, a tuna pizza, as well as a BBQ chicken & pineapple pizza. Burger King served fried chicken (like chicken legs & wings) and jalapeño Whoppers (Asians like spicy). KFC was your typical KFC—except here, people actually like eating there :-). KFC internationally is compared to Chick-fil-A in the states. Wild, I know.
Once I finally got a grasp of the culture and what my palate could handle, I begin trying other cuisines, especially Mongolian. Mongolia is known for it’s beef, so that was something I ate—but not much of it. I took on more of the traditional Asian dishes: noodles, rice, and of course, sushi. It’s interesting because before I left the states, I’d only had sushi maybe once or twice. Now? It’s just about a weekly must-have. Thanksgiving here was interesting, of course. I had to work on Thanksgiving (some of us Americans got together for a pot luck “Friends-giving” after work), but my job tried to make it special and celebratory for the staff members from the states, as you can see in the video clip below. Also in the video clip, you’ll see a glimpse of “borscht”, a Russian soup we had after church service here one day. Because our church family is so diverse, we aim to highlight a different culture’s cuisine in our after-service meal each week. I never cared much for beets, but the borscht actually wasn’t too bad!
As you can see, eating out is a thing :-) I will be honest and admit that I do not cook much here, although I do enjoy cooking (I get it from my grandmomma!). The truth is, I’m pretty intimidated by the grocery stores here and the items offered. Half of the merchandise I can’t read/understand, and when I try to ask, of course the store clerks can’t understand me. They don’t offer foods that I’m used to cooking with; it’s just a whole mess. And of course, now that I’m getting the hang of grocery shopping & cooking here, it’s almost time to come back home for summer break. But speaking of cooking in, my therapist actually cooked horse one time—yes, horse—and offered me some. Sasha, my dog, tried it too! How was it? See below!
Hopefully, you’re able to see that my eating escapades while here in Mongolia include cuisines ranging from Mongolian to Mexican, to American, to Italian, to seafood, snacks, sushi, and school cafeteria food. We even have Songo, which is a food delivery service similar to UberEats and DoorDash. Let’s just say what started off as food poisoning and being weary of what I would eat, has now turned into me finding my favorite restaurants and Mongolian dishes here. I’ve always been a fan of trying new foods, but I’ve sure gotten the full experience here so far; I’m excited to continue trying more! Which dish above is your fav?
