Western Mongolia - Mongolia - page 490

» Drink tea immediately; don't put it on the table until you have tried some.
» Take at least a sip, or a nibble, of the delicacies offered, even if they don't please
you.
» Hold a cup by the bottom, not by the top rim.
Don't
» Get up in the middle of a meal and walk outside; wait until everyone has finished.
» Cross your legs or stick your feet out in front of you when eating - keep your legs
together if seated, or folded under you if on the floor.
Habits & Customs
While traditions and customs do surround the dinner table, Mongolian meals are gener-
ally casual affairs and there is no need to be overly concerned about offending your
hosts.
In a ger in the countryside, traditional meals such as boiled mutton do not require sil-
verware or even plates; just trawl around the bucket until a slab catches your fancy. Eat
with your fingers and try to nibble off as much meat and fat as possible; Mongolians can
pick a bone clean and consider leftovers to be wasteful. There should be a buck knife to
slice off larger chunks. Most other meals in the rest of Mongolia are eaten with bowls,
knives, forks and spoons.
The well-researched www.mongolfood.info includes notes on Mongolian cuisine, plus
cooking techniques and recipes to dispel the myth that Mongolian menus stop at boiled
mutton.
It is always polite to bring something to contribute to the meal; drinks are easiest, or in
the countryside you could offer rice, bread or fruit. 'Bon appétit' in Mongolian is saikhan
khool loorai .
Meals are occasionally interrupted by a round of vodka. Before taking a swig, there's a
short ritual to honour the sky gods and the four cardinal directions. There is no one way
of doing this, but it usually involves dipping your left ring finger into the vodka and
flicking into the air four times before wiping your finger across your forehead.