Around the fire, and the pot, there is much more to say and many other things than recipes, or else, it would be a universal recipe that can be simmered anywhere and regardless of the means. In the desert, in tents, on the open sea, lost in the pampas, or the steppe, there is a universal cuisine: that of sharing. In Mongolia, in the cities as in the steppe, food sharing is a way of life, ritualized, embodied : the sharing of food and hospitality call happiness for men, ancestors, souls. They guarantee the good order of social relations, the harmony of the worlds, and the good health of the herd.
Throughout the year, night and day, the doors remain open, a milk tea always ready to welcome a visitor, whether he arrives unexpectedly or is expected. Life is organized to ensure a good circulation of food thanks to the numerous visits, given or received. Sharing is structuring, it creates a social chain. Through meat, bone, milk and its derivatives, ravioli and sole cakes, tea, food from its preparation to sharing, it is a whole way of living and thinking that is revealed
With Sandrine Ruhlman, anthropologist at the CNRS-National Museum of Natural History. She is a specialist in food practices and techniques in Mongolia. She is the author of several articles, and “The call of happiness. Mongolian Food Sharing in the North Asia collection of the Center for Mongolian and Siberian Studies.
For further
The 5 volumes of the North-Asia collection of the Center for Mongolian and Siberian Studies published with the École Pratique des Hautes Études.
Sharing the firstfruits and the bottom of the pot. Essay on the anthropology of food practices among the Mongols. Doctoral thesis in social anthropology and ethnology, EHESS Paris.
Wrapped Foods of the White Month – Lunar New Year Festive Food, by Sandrine Ruhlman – OCHA , online at the Ocha eater
Distinct bone and indifferent flesh, by Robert Hamayon – Mongolian Studies.
Anthropology of cooking and table mannersJean-Pierre Poulain
The cooking system in the Chinese culinary traditionby Françoise Sabban, Annales
For a culinary ethnology, by Yvonne Verdier – The Man 1969.
A whole world in the hollow of a dish. Comment on the large bowl of the Tuaregs by Saskia Walentowitz, journal des africanistes, 2006
Desert – The Taste of the World on RFI
A bigger world, by Fabienne Berthaud – 2019.
Slideshow
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Musical programming
– The legend of mother swan, by The Hu
-Joga, by Bjork.
RECIPE
The dough for pasta and large ravioli. Recipes from Sandrine Ruhlman’s call for happiness
The dough (Zuurmag): in a hollow container, mix wheat flour (a small bowl per person) with a little warm water. Warming the water beforehand makes it easier to work the dough. Knead (zuurah) the mixture until obtaining a smooth and firm dough, work the dough on the board and cut out floured. Let the dough rest and cover it with an upside-down container. To roll out the dough and make discs of dough, regularly flour the roll and the board. To make cutting the pasta easier, sear the discs on each side in the oven.
The steamed tagliatelle: Sear the small pieces of meat and the finely chopped onion in the bottom of the pot. Salute and stir. Optionally add diced vegetables. When the meat is seared, pour enough water to steam the pasta placed halfway up the pot. Place the short tagliatelle on the steamer plate. Once the pasta is cooked, remove the steamer and add the pasta to the contents of the pot.