Food food food!

One year ago in faraway Mongolia, a bunch of bubbly girls on a mission trip were walking in the freezing cold rain in search of a guan (restaurant). It was the first day of the Nadaam Festival and they had just returned from watching the opening ceremony which looked vaguely like the National Day Parade back in Singapore except the soldiers were much more skilful and could ride and perform stunts on horses. And there were also formation dances, where kids danced on the stadium field waving huge gold ankle bones (playing with cow's ankle bones is one of the Mongolians' favourite pastimes).

So a bunch of girls, Aagii and Chris the missionary trudging in the rain in search of a guan, hungry and frozen. And because it was Nadaam, which was their huge huge huge national holiday, every single shop was closed.

I'm not sure why I'm writing this. Perhaps it's the misery of feeling cold and hungry and even more misery looking at the choice of food after we finally found a guan that was open for business. Mongolians don't have much of a choice, they basically eat the same sort of food everyday, which is understandable for a nomad's life. Hence every guan sells the same thing. I didn't really develop an appetite for bootz (meat dumplings) and huurshuur (meat pancakes) and other variations of oily meat dishes, and stubbornly stuck to calat (salad) for most of my meals.


Nyamaa teaching us how to make bootz.




















Ernie, Joyce and MZ posing with their last huushuur. I can't even remember if I ate mine. If I did, it was probably done reluctantly.

Haluina's sister enjoying suteze (tea with salted milk, has more salt than milk and very little tea). I wasn't very used to this, but somehow Ernie and Rixin loved loved it.









But but but when we had a Singaporean food presentation for one of our English lessons, we prepared curry (canned food of course) which tasted glorious! And bak kut teh! (Yum yum) And rendang! (what is there more handsome?) My Mongolian friends commented never had I looked so happy seeing food in front of me.

So, dearest Joce (who was with me in Mongolia and hence knows I need this) presented me with curry and rendang premixes before I left for Mongolia. At the airport, I pleaded with the Cathay flight attendant to allow me to bring my precious Milo over despite my luggage being seriously overweight. Then Joel came over with Post Cereals, Milo and lots of San Remo pasta. Joel's mummy made JoBeth bring even more San Remo pasta, so I gave a couple away ;p. Then my sister came, more Milo and more Post Cereals. And suddenly Sida, Rachel, Nat and Jamie popped by after a transit at Thailand and viola! Mungbean dessert premixes and GREEN CURRY! Today Fangxi and Bona came with good ol' sponge cake and Bengawan solo kueh lapis, laksa, more curry stuff. With omg, Richfield's chocolate with macadamia! Two months to finish this!

Food, glorious food!
Eat right through the menu.
Just loosen your belt
Two inches and then you
Work up a new appetite.
In this interlude...
Once again, food
Fabulous food,
Glorious food.