Naadam 2010

We've been waiting for Naadam 2010 since we spotted a poster describing the event at the Genghis Khan exhibit.  Are you ready for some *real* Mongolian snacks?

Khuushuur - deep fried dough with beef filling

They are really good! 

And why wouldn't they be... look at that lovely viscous oil they are floating around in... aiyah!  I wonder if it is mutton oil?

At the festival, people set up tents and put food out for family and friends.  It's like a huge tailgate party!  That is aaruul (in the front) - curdled milk, dehydrated and dried in the air and sun.  We asked the man in the tent how aaruul is eaten, and he told us that kids eat it like candy for good strong teeth.  So, it's a dried yogurt snack!  Mutton and potatoes is a common dish and was sold at Naadam.

We bought some shortbread-like cookies from Deejis Bakery, but they're not anything this big.  This is a cookie pile at one of the party tents!  They are decorated with sugar cubes and aaruul, or just a bunch of modern candy.

Here's a Mongolian type of "donut" - boortsog

Kids and adults dressed up for the occasion

We heard throat singing and saw shaman dances

There were wrestling matches, but we didn't stay long enough to enjoy

We wondered why this tent was so popular... we thought they were enjoying some centuries old traditional Mongolian festivity... but they were watching a World Cup soccer game ;D Go Spain!

On the way out, we passed by what looked like the festival officials tent.  Another cookie pile! If anyone knows what the cookie pile is called, please let me know... my internet searches are turning up nothing.

** Updated July 26, 2010
A very helpful reader stopped by our blog and left the following comment about the "cookie pile".  Thank you so much for your help!  It was very interesting to note that the number 9 is auspicious to the Mongols.  For the Chinese, it is the number 8 (as it sounds similar to the word "prosper")

The cookie pile can be called in many ways. What most people call it is "zassan heviin boov", which basically means a tray of moulded cookies, for they have different traditional embellishing patterns moulded in the middle of them facing up. Patterns can't be seen from the side here on this picture. This tray with a pile of cookies is pretty much used as the center piece on the main table at parties and festivities. Because of that, they not eaten during the festivities. After the festivity is over, if the host wants to, the cookies are shared with the guests to take home. This kind of trays always have odd numbers of layers. For example, in this picture, there are 9 layers of cookies. Number 9 is a number that symbolizes never ending or eternity.Also the bigger the celebration is, the taller and bigger the tray gets. Allright, I tried to answer your question in the best of my knowledge lol, hope it helped.

After talking to a few festival goers, we found out that there is one Mongolian restaurant in the Bay Area (there are only about 3000 Mongolians in the area, so there isn't even a grocery store to serve them) - Asian Grill in Oakland.  We'll have to go try it soon!