Mongolian Thanksgiving Dinner

Darjhand and Oyandalia, two of our dear friends and branch members, invited us over to their home today for what they call "a Mongolian Thanksgiving."  It consisted of heram, vegetable buuz, and two sheep heads!

Puje and I got to help Oyandalia make the buuz.  Mine didn't turn out too great, but then I haven't had much experience making them either!  We very much like the vegetable buuz over the meat buuz!  This one was made with onions, potatoes, cabbage and garlic.  I think there were small chunks of meat as well, but they weren't big enough to get caught in our teeth!  The dough is rolled out in a flat circle and then the inside is added and the dough is pinched shut.  There are various ways to pinch it shut to make different designs when cooked.  Then the buuz is steamed in a big pan.  They were really good.  We were each given 7 in our bowls to eat, and Oyandalia said she was a little offended that I only could eat 4 or 5!  I hope she was kidding and that she really wasn't offended.  I just could not eat all 7, no matter how good they were!  Alan ate all of his!  Way to go ALAN!

 While the buuz were steaming, Darjhand pulled out this bowl with two sheep heads in it and started cutting down the side of the cheek.   It was a bit greasy and there wasn't much meat on the head, but there was enough there to feed the four of us.  Granted, Alan and I didn't eat very much!  Puje and Darjhand ate the tongue, the ear and meat from the roof of the mouth.  I had my pieces from the cheek and one from another bone that I'm not sure where it came from!    It really was quite tasty, but there just wasn't much there!

They put out a mat for everyone to sit on and then we were given a knife to start cutting the meat from the head we wanted to eat.   Everyone just took the head in their hands and cut off what they wanted.  They sure don't waste much here!  They eat it all!

Puje really likes the eyeball, but she had a hard time getting this one out.

Puje said this is one of her favorite meals.  When we walked in the door, Alan heard her say, "This is my kind of food!!"  And she really did enjoy it too!  The hair is first burned off with a blow torch and then the heads are boiled for 4-5 hours. Large noodles are included and pieces of fat are sliced off and put between the noodles for a "'fat" sandwich!

Alan tried the tongue, the mouth and the cheek!  He tried just about everything, but the eyeball and liked most of it!

The picture above is a great one of Darjhand.  He doesn't usually smile for pictures, but he is pretty excited about poking this eye out so Puje could eat it!  He was getting quite a kick out of our reaction to his sticking his finger in there in order to get the eye to come out!          

As we were leaving, Oyandalia insisted we try some of this jam she had made.  She gave us each a bite and, surprise, surprise, it was rhubarb!  Alan loves rhubarb and was so excited to know they grow it here!

This is what Oyandalia cooks on!  These stoves are really neat. They are wood fueled, and heat the house as well as cook the food.  Most meals are made in the big pan on top of the stove, which sits in a big hole above the fire.  There is a lid for the hole when nothing is being cooked. This is first oven I have seen outside of our apartments.  It's pretty slick.  She bakes bread in it and I am going to give her my mom's bread recipe and show her how to make it.  She will show me how she makes Mongolian bread sticks, which are very yummy.

They may be very disappointed in the Thanksgiving dinner we are planning to invite them to at our house next week!  It will be hard to top this menu!