It felt strange at first, especially foods I never imagined eating before like horse meat or mutton. Also, my host family helped a lot getting me used to the cuisine as my host mom was a very good cook. I am also a little lactose intolerant, which forces me to be careful about how much milk-based dishes I consume.
Mongolian meals almost always include meat or dairy and sometimes both. The ingredients are usually very fresh, sometimes straight from the countryside. You could say that the food is from farm to table, except there are very few farms in Mongolia because of the harsh climate. If you are ever planning to come to Mongolia, be prepared to eat a lot of mutton. Mutton has a very interesting taste and texture, if you have never had it. Most traditional Mongolian dishes are made with mutton as sheep are most commonly herded animals on the steppe. It is also common to find Mongolians using beef for their dishes but mutton is more popular. The other week, I went to a restaurant and ordered a beef dish. The restaurant did not have beef on hand so they substituted it with mutton. I was not particularly happy with this substitution but after living here I understand that for Mongolians this is very normal and practical.
Before coming to Mongolia, I never thought people ate horse, but my host family introduced it to me. Eating horse meat and innards was a big step outside of my comfort zone. My host family first introduced horse to me by making me horse meat soup. Then the next day we had the horse meat, plain, and the innards, specifically the intestines and heart. This is an important feature of Mongolian culture. When they pick an animal to eat, they prepare the whole animal. The horse meat, to my surprise tasted like a horse.
