Nomadic Families

The nomadic people are absolutely amazing. Just picture this… if a stranger knocked on our door in North America and said “Hi, I’m passing through, and was wondering about your lifestyle and what you do and if I could come in a visit with you for a bit” we’d look at them like they were crazy and tell them to get lost or we’d call the police. Yet in Mongolia, these Nomadic families welcomed us in, shared the food they had, talked, visited, laughed, and treated us like honored guests. We have much to learn about hospitality.
The major source of food for them during the summer months is milk products – and primarily it is mare’s milk they use. Just a short list includes fried curds, a sweet and soft curd dish fried in butter (my favorite), fermented mare’s milk called ayrag (it’s actually quite good and not very strong), and a dried curd dish that is quite crunchy. I could not believe the variety of foods they had created from one source.
The picture is of the first family we visited.