custom
Greet each other when meeting, even strangers should say hello; When colleagues meet acquaintances, they usually ask "Sai Bai Nu" (hello). If you meet elders or people you meet for the first time, ask "Hosai Bainu" (hello). It is a traditional Mongolian virtue to entertain passers-by (whether you know them or not), but you must respect your host when you are a guest in a Mongolian home. After entering the yurt, you should sit cross-legged on the carpet around the stove, but the west of the stove is the owner's residence, so you can't sit casually when the owner is not sitting. Guests generally drink milk tea sent by their hosts, and it is impolite not to drink it; The host asks for dairy products, and the guests should not refuse, otherwise it will hurt the host's heart. If it's inconvenient to eat more, just eat a little.
Offering Hada is also a noble courtesy of Mongols. When offering Hada, the giver hands it down to the other party, and the recipient also takes it with both hands or lets the giver hang Hada around his neck to express his gratitude.
Mongolians pay great attention to etiquette and rules when entertaining guests. For example, if you eat mutton, you usually give the sheep's pipa bone with meat and four long ribs to the guests. If you entertain guests with beef, give them a spine with meat, half a rib and a fat sausage. The biggest banquet for the guests is the mutton banquet. The feast of the whole sheep includes bones, limbs, ribs, thoracic vertebrae, sheep's head, and in some areas, sheep's heart, liver, rectum and stomach are added. The production method is to pour all parts of the whole lamb into a cauldron. After the water temperature rises, add a certain amount of cooked yogurt and gently boil it, and turn it frequently. Sausage, belly, heart, liver and burnt sheep head are cooked in another pot. Add seasoning and serve. When opening a banquet, put the cooked parts into a big plate with the tail facing outward, and carve a "ten" on the sheep's head to symbolize good luck. When eating, the host should ask the guests to cut the recommended bones of the sheep, or the elderly should cut them first and then eat them together. Before the girl gets married, the family must cook the lamb breast for the girl as a farewell. Roast whole sheep used to be used for sacrificial ceremonies or Aobao, but now it has become a special dish for grand festivals or welcoming VIPs.
religion
Mongolians believed in Shamanism in the early days, and generally believed in Lamaism after the Yuan Dynasty.
There are many distinctive Mongolian foods, such as roast sheep, roast whole sheep with skin, hand-pulled mutton, fried sheep, roast leg of lamb, milk tofu, Mongolian buns, Mongolian pies and so on. There are: thin cream, Mongolian standing dairy products; Milk skin; All-sheep banquet is a traditional Mongolian banquet dish, which is also often used for sacrificial activities. Roasted sheep cooked with Erdos flavor dishes in Inner Mongolia; Chinese cabbage and mutton rolls; Xinsu cake, a traditional Mongolian folk cake; Dry rice, Mongolian snacks.
Mongolian herders regard sheep as the guarantee of life and the source of wealth. Three meals a day, every meal is inseparable from milk and meat. Food made of milk is called "Chaganyide" in Mongolian, which means holy and pure food, that is, "free food"; Food made of meat is called "Ulan Yide" in Mongolian, which means "red food".
Besides the most common milk, Mongolians also eat goat's milk, horse's milk, deer's milk and camel milk. Some of them are used as fresh milk drinks, and most of them are processed into dairy products, such as dried yogurt, milk tofu, milk skin, cream, thin cream, cream residue, cheese crisp, milk powder, etc., which can be eaten at dinner and are also snacks suitable for all ages. Dairy products have always been regarded as excellent treasures. If there are visitors, they should be introduced first. If the child comes, he should also put milk skin or cream on his head to show his good wishes.
Mongolian meat is mainly beef and mutton, followed by goat meat, camel meat and a small amount of horse meat, and yellow mutton is also hunted during the hunting season. There are more than 70 kinds of traditional ways to eat mutton, such as all-sheep banquet, tender-skinned all-sheep banquet, all-sheep banquet, roasted sheep, roasted sheep heart, fried sheep belly and stewed dishes with sheep brain. The most distinctive ones are Mongolian roasted whole sheep (peeled and roasted), oven roasted whole sheep with skin or Alashan roasted whole sheep, and the most common one is grasping sheep by hand. Mongolians pay attention to the clear cooking of mutton and eat it immediately after cooking, so as to keep the mutton fresh and tender, especially when cooking mutton, avoid overcooking it. The Mongolians in the Mongolian-Chinese mixed area in the east of Inner Mongolia also like to add seasonings to cook the meat into crispy mutton. In some areas, Mongolians also like to cut the meat on the tenderloin of sheep into large pieces and fry it into fried meat slices, which is called "big fried sheep" by the people. Beef is mostly eaten in winter. It's all beef banquets, and more is stewed, braised and made into soup. Camel meat and horse meat are also eaten, and fried hump slices are dipped in sugar, which is a dish. Experienced chefs are also good at cooking beef tendon, deer tendon, bullwhip and oxtail into various therapeutic dishes. For the convenience of preservation, beef and mutton are often made into dried meat and bacon.
Fried rice is a unique Mongolian food, which occupies the same important position as red and white food in daily diet. Mongolians in the western region also have the custom of "bumping people" with fried rice. Add sheep oil, red dates, brown sugar and white sugar to make fried rice, mix well and knead into small pieces to serve as tea and rice. Steamed millet is mostly used to cook porridge with diced meat, and crushed noodles can be used to make pancakes; There are more and more foods made of flour in Mongolian daily diet, the most common ones are noodles and pancakes. They are good at making distinctive Mongolian buns, Mongolian pies and stuffed Mongolian cakes. Mongolians in Alashan and Erdos in the west also have the habit of making "Zhang Ru" with flour. The Zhelimu League in the east is rich in buckwheat, and the pancakes baked with buckwheat flour are a distinctive local food.
Mongolian people can't live without tea every day. In addition to drinking black tea, almost everyone has the habit of drinking milk tea. The first thing in the morning is to boil milk tea. Milk tea is best boiled with clear water. After boiling, pour it into a clean pot or a pot filled with tea powder, and simmer for 2-3 minutes, then mix fresh milk and salt to boil. Mongolian milk tea sometimes adds butter, or milk skin, or fried rice. , fragrant and salty, is a nourishing drink containing many nutrients. Some people even think that it's okay not to eat for three days and not to drink milk tea for one day. Mongolians also like to cook milk tea with fruits, leaves and flowers of many wild plants. Boiled milk tea has different flavors, and some can prevent and treat diseases.
Most Mongolians can drink alcohol, mostly white wine and beer, and some areas also drink milk wine and koumiss wine. When Mongolian people brew milk wine, they first put fresh milk into a barrel, and then add a small amount of yogurt-loving juice (more sour than ordinary yogurt) as a starter, and stir it every day. After all the milk turns sour in 3-4 days, they can put it in the pot and heat it. The pot is covered with a bottomless wooden bucket, and several small pots with big mouths facing down are hung inside the bucket. Then, put an iron pot full of cold water on the bottomless barrel. Yogurt evaporates after heating, condenses into liquid after cooling, and drops into a small basin. Every holiday or when friends and relatives get together, there is a habit of drinking a lot. Koumiss is fermented from fresh koumiss without distillation.