MWW 50: Цуйван

Cyrillic	цуйван
Transcription	tsuiwan
IPA	[ˈtshʏ:.wəŋ]
Layman’s Pronunciation	TSOY-wung
Meaning	a Mongolian noodle dish
In bygone days it was cuyiwing.

Цуйван is a tasty Монгол үндэсний хоол made of partly fried, partly steamed meat, vegetables, and long flat noodles. But don’t tell Mongolians that, because they will vociferously deny, “Tsuiwan is NOT noodles!” Instead they will tell you, “Tsuiwan is flour.” To the Mongolians, noodle means гоймон, which means instant-ramen-type stuff. Whereas when they say flour, they mean гурил. In Mongolian, гурил collapses three concepts that are separate in English: flour, dough (which the Mongolians call зуурсан гурил, “mixed flour”) and tsuiwan noodles. They’re all made of the same substance right? But even though the result is a a long, thin, worm-like starchy food item, Mongolians don’t see why we call it noodles, because they certainly never call it гоймон! And you can’t convince them that they’re the same thing, no matter how well it fits the English definition of noodle. The lumping of цуйван with гурил instead of гоймон continues with soup. When you add tsuiwan noodles to soup, it’s simply called гурилтай шөл, “flour soup,” and never гоймонтой шөл.

So how is tsuiwan made? Tsuiwan starts by mixing flour and water to form dough, which is rolled into a large flat sheet and baked briefly on a hot stove. When it gets solid enough, you cut the hot dough into long flat noodles. Now in a wok start frying finely sliced meat and vegetables (in some places, this may be no more than potatoes and onions) in a wok and flavor them with lots of salt (and Vigora, and anything else if you can get). Stir the noodles (er, flour) together with the meat and veggies. Finally, fill the wok with a little bit of water (about 1/3 of the way to the level of the noodles) and put the lid on for a few minutes to let it soften up. Yum!

Цуйван бол гурилаас хийдэг.

Tsuivan is made from flour/dough/noodles.

Цуйван хамгийн амттай Монгол үндэсний хоол бөгөөд хийхэд үр чадвар их шаарддаг.

Tsuiwan is the most delicious Mongolian dish but making it requires a lot of skill.

Tsuiwan recipes

• http://www.mongolfood.info/en/recipes/tsuivan.html
• http://www.desktopcookbook.com/recipe/88541/Mongolian-Tsuivan---fresh-noodles-w-meat---veggies.htm
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3dAo1mxnx8

MWW 40: Хорхог (Боодог)

The REAL Mongolian Barbecue

Cyrillic	хорхог
Transcription	horhog
IPA	[χɔrχəq]
Layman’s Pronunciation	HOR-huck
Translation	a dish of roasted meat - “Mongolian barbecue”
In Genghis Khan’s time it was qorqaγ.

Also known as боодог, horhog is the real Mongolian barbecue, not the stuff you get at “Mongolian Barbecues” in the States. (Fun Fact: BD’s is the only American chain restaurant to have set up shop in Mongolia, although it’s simply called “BD’s Barbecue.”) It is sometimes also described as being like Irish stew. Хорхог is usually made with goat meat, but it can be made with lots of other kinds of meat, including marmot (тарвага - see Mongolian Word of the Week #65). It is often enjoyed outdoors during summer parties. This is how хорхог is made:

1.      First, find some nice palm-sized rocks.

2.      Make a big fire and drops the rocks in it.

3.      Get a big empty milk or water can. It should be about the size of a goat.

4.      Stuff the dismembered goat in the milk can, along with some potatoes, carrots, and the hot rocks.

5.      Seal the milk can and put it back on the fire.

6.      Wait a long time, then pop open the can and enjoy!

The milkcan

Manly Mongol men making a meaty masterpiece in a milkcan

Once the the meat is dished out, the hot rocks are too. People will take the hot rocks and hold on to them as long as they can, passing them back and forth from hand to hand but never putting them down, trying to keep from dropping them as long as possible. Apparently, your luck increases in proportion to the time you can keep from dropping the rock.

Mmmm!

MWW 38: Өрөм

Cyrillic	өрөм
Transcription	öröm
IPA	[ˈөrəm]
Layman’s Pronunciation	OH-rum
Translation	“Mongolian butter”
In Genghis Khan’s time it was örüme.

Isn't scheduling great? Now I don't even have to be online to post blog entries, nor do I have to post them all at the same time. I can just schedule them to be posted some time in the future and have entries coming out every day long after I'm back in the land of no internet.

Өрөм, sometimes also called Монгол масло (Mongolian butter), is what you get when you boil milk. Americans don’t boil milk at home very often, but when they do they don’t care much for the skin that forms on the top of boiling milk. Mongolians however collect this skin as өрөм. It ends up looking almost like a large omelet. It’s crumblier than butter, and stiffer than margarine. Also, if it gets hot, it sweats milk. And just like butter, Mongolians love to spread it on bread, sometimes with sugar. They also stack dried-out өрөм in candy bowls along with ааруул and бяслаг.

öröm

BONUS POINT: What language did Mongolian take the word масло "butter" from?

MWW 30: Хуушуур

Cyrillic	хуушуур
Transcription	huushuur
IPA	[χʊ:ʃʊr]
Layman’s Pronunciation	HOH-shore
Translation	fried meat dumpling
In Genghis Khan’s time, I’m not sure if it existed.

America has hot dogs and hamburgers, Mongolia has buuz and huushuur. In each case, you’ve got two different, but essentially similar things that have sort of become archetypal. Americans, stereotypically, eat hot dogs and hamburgers, and grill ‘em outdoors on Independence Day or Labor Day. In Mongolia, buuz and huushuur are probably the two foods that people cite as their favorites, and which get hyped as “Mongolian national food.”

Hot dogs and hamburgers are both molded ground meat in a bun. Buuz and huushuur are both ground meat in a dough pocket which is pinched shut with pretty designs. Within this identical basic framework though, they’re way apart. The main difference is that buuz is steamed, but huushuur is deep-fried. Aside from that, they’ve also differentiated themselves in lots of other details. They tend to be pinched with different styles, use different seasoning combinations, and be associated with holidays at opposite times of year.

бууз	хуушуур
steamed	deep-fried
stiff dough	floppy dough
round and compact	long and flat
pinched at the top	pinched along the side
stereotypical Tsagaan Sar food	stereotypical Naadam food

Huushuur with coleslaw or something

Huushuur from the fast food chain Haan Buuz

As often happens in life, the biggest divide seems to occur between the two most similar things. Serbs and Croats. Crips and Bloods. Buuz and huushuur. Personally, I choose huushuur. Which one will YOU choose?

Now I’m hungry.

MWW 26: Айраг

A bowl and vat of airag

Cyrillic	Айраг
Transcription	airag
IPA	[ˈæ:rək]
Layman’s Pronunciation	AA-ruck
Translation	fermented mare’s milk, kumiss
In Genghis Khan’s time it was ayiraγ.

Airag is the Mongols’ traditional alcoholic beverage, made from fermented horse milk. The first airag I had was given to me, along with a hadag, in a rinsed-out 1.25L coke bottle when I first arrived at site. (Airag isn’t sold in stores; you get it from your rural cousins in a recycled coke bottle.) It wasn't bad but I didn’t like the milk solids that tended to float in it. I recently had some of the new stuff that’s just coming out this summer, and it was smoother. I could also see the little fermentation bubbles in the drops of airag that stuck to the cup. I drank at least three bowls of it. And an hour later I ran to the bathroom three times. Airag is not for the sensitive stomach: even Mongolians sip it little by little at the beginning of summer, until they rebuild their tolerance.

Making Airag

Airag appears early in the summer as mares produce foals, and thus milk. If you take a walk around where there are lots of horses, you can probably see women milking the mares. Why do we not have cow airag? The answer lies in the composition of the milk. Alcohol is made by fermenting sugar. Horse milk has the most lactose (milk sugar), so it gets the most alcohol. (Goat milk has the least, which is why it's the easiest on the stomach.) Airag is usually left to ferment in a leather bag near the door of a ger. (I’ve also seen a guy with a 60L vat of the stuff.) It’s “stirred” by punching the bag. It’s polite to give the bag a punch if you walk into a ger with someone brewing it. Airag continues to appear through autumn, and the autumn airag is considered especially potent. There was also airag at Tsagaan Sar. I don’t know if mares are still giving milk at this point, or if that stuff was somehow saved since autumn. Airag can also be made into a kind of “Mongolian vodka” (Монгол архи) by freeze distillation. You just leave your airag outside and part of the water content (but not the alcoholic content) will freeze and you can lift it out. That stuff is pretty nasty though. It tastes sort of like vodka with a hint of old cheese.

Airag Customs

At parties airag is usually ladled from from a large ceramic vase into a traditional аяга (bowl for eating and drinking). You drink as much as you can, then hand it back to your server, who refills it and passes it to the next guy (or back to you, if you're the only visitor). An amusing tradition is to make the guest sing, while holding the bowl, and sometimes while standing. Usually after a few lines everyone else joins in. Once you’re done (but not before), you may drink the airag.

Perhaps because airag is traditionally ingrained in the culture, and because its alcohol content is low, it’s not looked at the same way as other drinks like beer or vodka. It’s not “bad.” Mongolians just don’t think of it as “booze” and so they give it to little kids and pregnant women.

So since it’s summer again, here’s to the airag!

MWW 13: Бууз

Cyrillic	бууз
Transcription	buuz
IPA	[pʊ:ts]
Layman’s Pronunciation	BODES
Translation	large steamed meat dumpling
In Genghis Khan’s time it was buuja.

Buuz is one of Mongolia’s chief dishes. To quote a conversation one of my friends had,

Bryce:                          What is buuz?

Mongolian teachers:      It is a Mongolian national food.

Bryce:                          I know, but what is it made of?

To answer that last question, buuz is made of flour, water, meat, and usually onions. The meat is finely chopped and mixed with finely chopped onions, sometimes seasoning, and whatever other optional ingredients you want to add. The dough is rolled into little circles and filled with the meat mixture. Then you pinch the top to seal it. (Mongolian women usually pinch the top in one of several neat, floral-looking patterns. This is notoriously difficult for Peace Corps volunteers to do.) Then you steam it.

The buuz above is pinched along a long seam. You can see some nice pictures of more typical top-pinched buuz here:

• http://hazarainmongolia.wordpress.com/tag/buuz/
• http://www.teatime-blog.com/2005/01/01/

Buuz is usually made without yeast, but it can be made with yeast. In this case it is called мантуун бууз (mantuun buuz) after мантуу (mantuu), a kind of Mongolian steamed bread.

Buuz is stereotypically Mongolian, and is eaten throughout the year, but it has a special place in Tsagaan Sar. It can be compared to turkey. Turkey is easy to find in America and scarce in most other places (including Mongolia), and is eaten throughout the year in sandwiches but takes center stage during Thanksgiving. In the case of buuz, my hashaa family made and froze 1,600 buuz in preparation for the holiday.

бууз                 чимхэх
buuz                 chimheh
[pʊ:ts              ’tʃ^him.xex]

BODES           CHIM-khekh
to pinch buuz

Бууз                чимхэж          чадах уу?
Buuz                chimhej           chadah            uu?
[pʊ:ts              ’tʃ^him.xetʃ        tʃ^hat. ’xʊ:]
BODES           CHIM-khej      chat-KHOH?
Can you pinch buuz?

Чадна             шүү!
Chadna           shüü!
[’tʃ^ha.dǝn         ʃʉ:]
CHAD-uhn      shoe!

Yes I can!

Яамар                        муухай           бууз!    Чадахгүй.
Yaamar            muuhai            buuz!    Chadahgüi.
[’ja:mǝr            ’mʊ:χæ           pʊ:ts.   tʃ^ha.dǝx.’kʊ:]
YAH-mer         MOO-kha        bodes!  Chah-dukh-GOO.
What an ugly buuz! You can’t (pinch).

PS: I had been called to the capital by Peace Corps for an emergency drill when I was updating about Tsagaan Sar. Then my ride back showed up while I was working on the blog. So, buuz and hadag didn't get posted, and tsagaan was scheduled to be posted before I finished typing, so I added more to it just now.

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Read More

Buuz recipe on All Mongolian Recipes: http://www.mongolfood.info/en/recipes/buuz.html

MWW 5: боов

Cyrillic	боов
Transcription	boov
IPA	[pɔ:w]
Layman’s Pronunciation	BAWV
Translation	fried pastry

Боов is a very characteristic part of the Mongolian diet which you can find in any tiny little store, or which is made at home. In fact, it’s one of the few things that I can always find at the store (unlike eggs or baking soda). In its standard form it’s simply a piece of dough, fried. But it gets applied to all sorts of things which we might call cookies, or donuts, or might not have a word for.

This is your typical home-made боов, which will be offered to you if you visit a Mongolian house or гэр.

This thing was almost as long as my forearm. It is known as улын боов. It was hard, and had a sort of greasy, cheesy taste. People make pyramids of this stuff for weddings. I found some examples of this here and here.

This is a еэвэн нарийн боов made by Stimo. It's basically a shortbread cookie. I buy a bag of these a week and eat them for breakfast because I'm too tired and cold to do anything other than start a fire, which usually takes most of the time I allot between waking up and going to work.

I don't know what the special name for this is, but the school kitchen bakes them and they're really good. They're made with risen dough and are soft and chewy inside, and taste pretty much like a donut without glaze. Whenever the school bakes them, I take some. Cats also go crazy for them.

Боов is also known as боорцог (boortsog). It’s convenient that there is another word for it, because боов has another meaning. Whether by coincidence or metaphorical extension, боов is also a slang term for the most conspicuous part of the male anatomy.

So when I walked into the teacher’s lounge one day and saw the улын боов above for the first time, I exclaimed,

Whoa, маш том боов!

(Whoa, mash tom boov!)

which could mean either, “Whoa, really big fried pastry” or “Whoa, really big penis.” You can imagine what the reaction of the faculty was.

MWW 4: цай

Cyrillic	цай
Transcription	tsai
IPA	[tshæ:]
Layman’s Pronunciation	TSA
Translation	tea; meal
In Genghis Khan’s time it was cai.

Here you go! You get two words this time to make up a little.

Mongolians drink lots of tea. I usually drink it at every meal. Usually, it comes in the form of сүүтэй цай (süütei tsai), or milk tea. However, at the school cafeteria I tend to get “brown tea” which has no added milk. Tea is especially important at breakfast, when it seems that most Mongolians have tea and nothing else. Whenever you visit someone’s house, you’ll get offered tea. Tea is so important to Mongolian’s diets that apparently they can’t conceive of a meal without tea, because sometimes they use the word цай for the entire meal as well as the tea.

Thus, although there is another word, хоол, for “meal,” “breakfast” is called өглөөний цай (öglöönii tsai, “morning tea”) and “lunch” can be either өдрийн хоол (“day meal”) or өдрийн цай (“day tea”).

Хоол goes with the verb идэх (ideh), “to eat,” and цай goes with the verb уух (uuh), “to drink.” So if you want to ask if someone ate breakfast, you say,

Өглөөний цай уусан уу?

Morning.GEN tea drink.PAST QUESTION

“Did you drink morning tea?”

and even if you only had toast and nothing liquid, you could correctly answer,

Тийм, уусан.

Yes drink.PAST

“Yes, (I) drank (it).”

Actually, this isn’t that strange. Other languages have derived a word like "food" or "meal" from a particular food item. In Japanese, gohan means both “meal” and “cooked rice.” (I think the same thing happened in Chinese; examples, please?)