I’ve been a world traveler since I was little – it happens when you’re in a missionary family.
I left the United States for Germany when I was three, my family worked there for almost eight years and visited more European countries than I fully remember.
So, when I took time off between high school and college for a three-month trip to China and Mongolia, it was somewhat easy since I’d done the globe-trotting thing before.
At the same time, I’d never traveled abroad as an adult, and I was heading to Asia -- neither my parents nor my four grandparents who’d worked in missions had ever spent much time there.
I was breaking new ground.
I ended up having a great trip -- which became the basis for a memoir and a still-developing ebook project -- and discovered some interesting cultures and foods.
Here are the most unusual foods I tried.
1. Chicken Feet
The appeal to this dish is basically the same as pork rinds. They’re fried, distinctly unhealthy, but there’s just something about fat that makes people come back for more.
Chicken feet can be served by themselves as a snack or combined with other dishes. In my case, they came as a side with savory potatoes and a whole chicken cut into pieces.
This snack is so popular in China there’s a thriving black market of chicken feet to meet the demand.
2. Hipthuk
Since Tibetans live not just in the official Tibetan province but all across the Tibetan Plateau, I got to experience some Tibetan culture in China.
According to Lonely Planet’s book “The World: A Traveller's Guide to the Planet,” Hipthuk is a variation of a dish called Thugpa, noodle soup with meat and vegetables. Hipthuk has square noodles and meat (most likely yak meat) in hot broth, sometimes a little spicy.
A perfect example of what people mean when they say "great ethnic cuisine."
3. Yak Yogurt
Another Tibetan dish that migrated to China. As other tourists have noted, this is an unusually thick, sour yogurt. I received some with raw sugar on it, which counterbalanced the sourness very well.
Yak yogurt's also common in Mongolia.
4. Stuffed Intestines
This food runs through several cultures (including Turkish and Lebanese cuisine. I discovered these in a Chinese Muslin restaurant, and they essentially tasted like mashed potatoes in thick sausage skins. The skins don’t taste like much, so it’s really a question of whether you like the stuffing.
5. Tibetan Cheese
I haven't found the exact name for the cheese I tried -- it appears to have either been Churrpi or Chura kampo. Both are hard and not so much to be eaten as sucked. According to one scholar, Churrpi can be sucked for at least two hours, making it great for long journeys.
I didn’t care for it, but it’d be worth it if you want the ultimate gobstopper or an alternative to hardtack.
6. Butter Tea
While Westerners have gotten very good at appropriating tea from Asia, there’s still one thing we haven’t copied: tea with a savory taste. Butter tea (or po cha) consists of yak butter, tea leaves, and salt. What you get is a salty drink which is an acquired taste, but it left me wanting to have just a little more. Similar to the appeal of Vegemite.
Apparently, butter tea is beginning to come into the States, and it should be interesting to see what gourmet tea hobbyists do with it. Salty tea with caramel syrup, perhaps?
7. Pirozhki
Russia, we often forget, is partly an Asian country. It also used to control many smaller Asian countries, including Mongolia.
In light of that, it wasn’t surprising I found this during my stay. As the picture shows, this is essentially a bread pocket with filling in it – usually meat or meat with vegetables. One can also use fruit and serve it as dessert.
My hosts went for a simple approach -- a basic meat filling with the bread fried in oil (which is typical). Simple, yet very good.
8. Dumplings
Mongolians and Tibetans have a lot in common – they both have long histories as nomadic herders, so their food tends to focus on the same resources: meat, milk, bread, and maybe root vegetable.
Known as Momos in Tibet and Buuz in Mongolia, these are steamed dumplings with meat or vegetables (such as carrots, cabbage) inside them.
While some versions have thinner dough, I found the vegetables inside weren’t cooked much and it felt like eating pot- stickers without the crispy texture (which is half the fun, after all). Well worth trying, especially if you can find good quality ones.
9. Khuushuur
Like Pirozkhi, Khuushuur (pronounced "ho-sher") is a bread pocket with meat filling.
Since Mongolians are ancestrally nomad herders -- and therefore probably didn't grow wheat -- it’s assumed this is an offshoot of the dumplings mentioned earlier. Wherever it originally came from, it ’s become almost the national food of Mongolia – as the Guardian noted, it’s hard to find a Mongolian home or restaurant that doesn’t serve them.
10. Youtiao
Often called the Chinese cruller, donut or breadstick, these fat-fried pieces of bread taste great. People often eat them the way Westerners eat donuts – as a breakfast food with milk or another dairy product.
Hope I gave you some fun suggestions to try on future trips.
