Mongolia: Goat Feast

Skip this post if you are vegetarian! Along one of the million of dirt tracks criss-crossing the Gobi, there was a local nomadic herder just getting ready to cut a freshly killed goat. Long story short – and I got invited to witness it all and the preparation of khorhog (a feast on the freshly killed goat’s intestines). First the goat is skinned, then the intestines and other internal organs are taken out The blood is drained from the goat and from the liver into a separate bucket. Then the meat in chopped into pieces and put on top of the ger (yurt) for drying (for later use). The stove inside of the ger is fired with wood and dung (it’s Gobi desert and not much wood can be found here). Some internal organs (heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, etc) are put into the boiling water, while the intestines and fat are used to make impromptu blood sausages that are also added to the boiling khorhog. Watching all this gutting and blood, I thought I am gonna become vegetarian. While waiting for all of it to cook, you are offered some goat cheese, some fresh horse burrata-like cheese, and camel cheese curds with ayrag (fermented horse milk). Women work on preparing all the food while the men converse (or try to since elemental Russian was the only means of conversation). Potatoes and carrots are added to the boil. Finally the feast is ready and you sit around the stove and eat everything with only a huge hunting knife in your hand to slice the liver and blood sausages. Thinly sliced onion is used for palette cleansing be tween different meat sampling. It’s insanely delicious and fresh and all-you-can-eat and it looks fantastic and you get stuffed to an absolute limit! Michelin six star for sure.