Day 11 Mongolia
This morning we climbed an extinct volcano. It was a much easier climb than the one up to the monastery a few days earlier (thank fuck!).
Got to the top then climbed around the rim of the volcano and saw some pretty spectacular views. Damn you Mongolia for continuing to deliver excellent scenery everywhere.
There was supposed to be a blue lake in the crater of the volcano but it must not have been raining much recently. It was just a small pool that had more algae than water.
Did lunch at the bottom of the road up to the volcano. Quite amusing watching all the tourist and locals trying to get up the terrible road in their SUVs and sedans. Most of them did a reasonable job (go the Prius!) but a few had to hang their head in shame and park at the bottom then walk up.
Stopped at a couple of small caves after the volcano. One of them had some ice at the bottom. Permafrost type thing. Only time we've seen that so far in Mongolia.
We ended up at a local farmer's property for the night. Was supposed to be camping but a few of us upgraded to their spare ger's which was much better.
Dinner!
Tonight was my best Mongolian experience so far.
On the first night we saw something on a TV where they will cook a goat whole with hot stones. One of the guys asked JoJo to organise it and tonight was the night!
So we arrived and confirmed it was still a go-er. The farmer went over and whacked a goat on the head with a hammer a couple of times to kill it then they strung it up from a tree to drain some blood and start the process.
At this point we found out the goat was too big to the hot stone thing which was a real disappointment. But! The farmer offered to do the stone thing with a marmot which was much smaller but the same process. Score!
So the goat was going to be cooked in a pressure cooker and the marmot using the stone method.
The goat.
I won't go into too much detail but we saw the whole process of getting the goat ready for eating. Cutting off the head and hooves, skinning, removing the organs and cleaning everything. I've never seen this before. I was quite surprised at how clean the whole process was. I kind of expected to be hit by a terrible smell and for blood to be everywhere but that wasn't the case at all.
The bloody dog stole a few pieces of the meat (including the stomach lining (tripe) and one of the shanks ... bastard!)
The meat and some vegetables and salt went into what looked like an old milk container. The thing was filled then some layers of rubber stuck over the opening and the lid pulled down. It was set to cook on the fire for about an hour then they brought it over and pulled it all out.
The flavours of the meal itself were nothing special. It was just a big stew but the meat and veg were tasty and watching the process was great.
The marmot.
This was the exciting one. This was going to show us the traditional hot stone cooking.
We were a bit worried to start with because the marmot was frozen. We thought we'd missed half the process. In hindsight I guess it's obvious that they wouldn't just be able to catch a marmot as soon as we wanted one. It's not like they breed them like they do with the goats.
It wasn't defrosted until after dinner so we didn't start until late but it's light until nearly 10pm here so that's fine.
We missed the disembowelling process but it's basically the same as the goat so that wasn't a problem. Would have been better to see the whole thing end to end but we got the most important bit in the time we had.
So we arrived to see the innards on a tray next to the inside-out marmot corpse. They'd basically cut the head off then pulled all the innards out and kept the good bits.
Once we were ready to get started they grabbed one of the marmot feet and pulled the thing so it was right side out. Really cool. Just like a hot water bottle or a bag or something. One smooth motion.
Then the farmer and his son took the stuff over to the fire and systematically started layering rocks, meat and some onion into the marmot.
They would start with a rock and put it right in the hip joint of one of the legs. The marmot would start smoking like crazy as the rock starts to cook the inside of the marmot. Then some meat would go in on the rock and another rock would go in. Each time a new rock went in there was a fresh round of smoke pissing out of the marmot.
A note here. With the goat you have to sew up the stomach and butt so liquid doesn't leak out. Not necessary with the marmot apparently. The stomach wasn't pierced and the butt didn't leak until right at the end when it was just a little bit of cooking juices coming out. Not even a quarter of a cup of liquid.
So they repeat the rock-meat-rock process until the marmot is packed full of meat and rocks then they tie the neck closed tightly with some string or twine or something.
Then the blowtorch comes out. The marmot is taken over to a rubber mat and the farmer starts searing the entire outside of the marmot while scraping it down with a stick. The idea is that all of the hair is seared off the skin which makes the skin re-usable but also helps cook the meat inside.
We were told this would take about 10 minutes but it was over an hour in reality. The farmer used up a gas bottle and had to go get a new one. Not sure how full it was but he just kept burning it over and over.
Finally it was done and we got to go eat the damn thing.
Carried it over to the kitchen area, stuck it on a tray and started carving it up and taking the rocks out.
The meat was beautiful. A bit overdone maybe but it was greasy and gamey and delicious. I don't think we got all the organs but we definitely had the liver (yum!). We also had some of the skin which had a nice big layer of fat on it. It was very tasty but messy to eat and just too fatty to be really enjoyable.
We ended up leaving a bunch of both the goat meat and the marmot for the farmer's family. But it was money well spent and my favourite Mongolian experience so far.
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