Naadam Street Snack · Fried Meat Pastry
Khuushuur
Photo: Mizu_basyo / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Locals eat it corner-first on purpose: pinch one edge, bite it open, and sip out the scalding juice inside before eating the rest — the same trick used on steamed buuz — since the fried wrapper traps steam that can otherwise burn your mouth.
A circle of dough is folded around minced mutton or beef mixed with onion, then shallow-fried until the wrapper crisps and blisters. Vendors at Ulaanbaatar's Naadam festival grounds and the Narantuul ('Black') Market fry them to order in huge batches, handing them over piping hot wrapped in paper.
Why it's made this way: It became the unofficial food of Naadam, Mongolia's national festival of wrestling, archery and horse racing, because it could be fried fast and in volume for the crowds who gather each July — a portable dish descended from nomadic campfire cooking.
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Buuz
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Guriltai Shül
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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