Inner Mongolian cuisine

[Ce'nedra]

Just wondering...is Inner Mongolian cuisine distinctly Mongolian or is it considered a regional Chinese cuisine?

Also, can anybody refer to me any specialties? Hot Pot perhaps?

P.S I'll be posting more often these days since I recently returned home from my holidays yay!

[lilyhotel]

Personally speaking, I think Inner Mongolian cuisine is distinctly Mongolian, although Inner Mongolian is one party of China(PRC).

The most common dish is cooked mutton, often without any other ingredients.. haha....

PS: The Mongolian diet includes a large proportion of animal fat. While this would lead to health problems in an industrialized society

Just wondering...is Inner Mongolian cuisine distinctly Mongolian or is it considered a regional Chinese cuisine?

Also, can anybody refer to me any specialties? Hot Pot perhaps?

P.S I'll be posting more often these days since I recently returned home from my holidays yay!

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[Dejah]

Hot pot is all I've ever heard about from my Inner Mongolian students. But then, that might be all they knew how to cook as most seem to come without any cooking skills!

Mutton (lamb) does play a prominent role in their hot pots tho'.

[snowangel]

I think a nice place to start are Ellen Shapiro's topics on her travels to Mongolia. These are phenomenal posts -- full of photos, including some cooking classes she took. Her posts on this trip are truly works of art.

You'll find my search of all of these topics right here.

[jo-mel]

I would think that Inner Mongolia would retain its traditional foods, because of the geographical influences. Grasslands = lamb, beef, milk. But because of the culture changes over the years, the cuisine can't help but reflect Chinese tastes also -- especially when so many Han Chinese live there..

I've only passed thru Inner Mongolia on a train from Mongolia, tho. In Mongolia, itself, there was lamb in every way possible, be it stewed, souped, dumplinged, shredded. Yogurt and sour cream. Lots of potatoes, cabbage and turnip. (Russian influence?)

Looking at my food menues of that trip, I see that as soon as we entered Datong, Shanxi Prov. -- right across the border from Inner Mongolia, the menus and food changed considerably in quality and selection, but it was still reflective of the geographical area.

(I want to go back!!!!!!)

[Peter Green]

I would second SnowAngel's recommendation - go to Ellen Shapiro's post. That'll give you an excellent overview of eating on the steppes.

That said, I wonder how much tradition the Inner Mongolian cuisine will have kept. It is one of those areas that was targeted (like Tibet) for massive Han Chinese repopulation.

Mind you, that could make it quite interesting.

My memories of Outer Mongolian cuisine - mutton for breakfast, mutton for lunch, and mutton for dinner. After a week in the field, back in the relative comfort of Ulaan Baator, we offered to take our Russian-Mongol guide out for a dinner of her choice - anything foreign.

She heavily recommended one Chinese restaurant, which sounded good.

Their specialty?

Mutton.

[Ce'nedra]

I just had a read through Ellen Shapiro's posts and my my, were they ever informative and most of all, enjoyable to read (and gawke at the beautiful photography)!

Seeing as there seems to be so much dairy products used, I wonder if the Han Chinese people there are lactose intolerant?

It really intrigues me considering the huge number of LI Asians...but not the Mongolians?

Do Inner Mongolians (or Mongolians in general) make wide use of soy sauce? Or is that left to the Han residents?

Also, do the native Mongols eat pork at all? Obviously the Chinese do and I wonder if they left that kind of influence in Inner Mongolia.

The Chinese have broader culinary variations so it would be interesting to note whether the Inner Mongolians have picked those culinary traditions up or kept to their old ways (with little Chinese influence).