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The Mongolian New Year (White Month - Цаган Сар) is finished & thought it was good I have to say that I have happy it is finished. Бид 4 4-н айл очсон. Translated, the 4 of us visited 4 families. Teresa & the kids did very well. Teresa in total ate 4 бууз, Kiel ate 4 also, Esme ate 8 бууз & I ate 38 бууз plus 14 хуушуур. Needless to say every Mongolian I meet asks me how many бууз I ate & can't believe it. Here is a picture of the traditional Монгол Цаган table. This is how every Mongolians table is set up that you see during Цаган Сар.

 

Here is the table with all of the traditional foods, drink plus some things that they added (the candy.) 

 

Here is the Traditional mutton, horse or camel meat on the table which everyone is to eat. This is what I think is awesome. Look how lean the meat is. It's a good thing I like fat as much as I do. 

Here is the суутай цай which is the boiled (horse, sheep, camel, cows) milk with lots of salt & tea (Mongolian leaves, flowers, bark together.) Teresa, Kiel, Esme & I really like it. we each had 2-4 cups each home we went to.

Here are бууз (buutz.) They are really fatty ground or finely chopped mutton meat with onion, garlic & salt. They are wrapped with flour dough & then streamed over boiling water. This is the main Цаган Сар food. Each Mongolian family will make 1,500-3,000 for Цаган Сар. All family members will visit each home during the 4 days of Цаган Сар. My best friend here had over 100 people in their home & they have to feed all of them, well. It is fun, but stressful at the same time when there are so many people moving through your home & the cost of food when most live on less then $2/day. 

 

 Here is the Mongolian Цаган Сар cake. It is not really cake, but stacked flat loaves of bread. At the top their is a traditional flat loaf with Mongolian traditional symbols on it & then the sun dried yogurt pellets, sugar cubes, white nuts  & yellow congealed milk fat (very top.) Everyone can eat the things on the top. However, you have to touch the side loaves 1st before taking something off the top. Also the side loaves cannot be eaten until Цаган Сар has finished. They are fun to eat because they are totally dried out & as hard as a rock. 

I will say that we have been eating as many fruit & vegetables as well as drinking fruit juice as we can now that Цаган Сар is finished. We want to clean some of the fat out of our bodies. Although I want to say that many of you may be grossed out by the amount of fatty foods Mongolians eat. "However, when you (Mongolians) only eat one meal a day your body needs the fat to burn as energy." We all eat more than 3 meals a day & can't do this.