Globe-trotting Mongolia: Sea buckthorn, Boortsog and Everything in Between

October 03, 2013

Globe-trotting Mongolia: Sea buckthorn, Boortsog and Everything in Between

It all started with a smile. Thereupon it grew to friendship. Then an invitation followed.

Firstly, allow me to give you a little flashback to latch onto the friendship story: Ogii was in Ate Nelly's Toefl Class last spring and since the "soil happened to be fertile to plant a Seed", she and her friends were invited for a bible study. We became friends shortly after having few one-on-one sessions with her when my Ate's (big sisters) were in Jerusalem last April. When she told her parents about us, they gladly invited us to come over their place. Thus so the adventure took place.

Ogii in one of our one-on-one session

Experiencing a country side life for a relatively new outlander like me is just one of many amazing favors I got from my ever-loving Dad. We were able to embrace a life-changing experience for a 3-day 2-night stay at Ogii's place in Unegt, Mongolia, about 4.5 hours train ride from the city. Unegt, translated literally to Mongolian language means "with fox" or "has fox". Sounds interesting, eh.

Sheeps and Goats at Unegt, Mongolia

Happy three feet while waiting for the sun to set

Was able to see sheeps at last. They're sooo adorable.

Ate Nelly and Ogii atop the hill

At the Train Station

Ogii's parents and sister were so accommodating, although I really had a hard time comprehending the whole conversation since they speak very little English. It's like a double nose-bleed for finding mongolian words from my imaginary list in translating my English convo. Yanaa. I just started my Mongolian language class two weeks ago so you gotta bear with me. Good thing my two beautiful sisters, Berlie and Nelly were there with our two Mongolian friends, Hishgee and Ulzii. Together with Ogii, they were my dearest translators the whole time. Not bad.

It was a perfect timing for us to be there as the temperature is dropping down below zero in no less time. Hibernating will start in a couple of days so we grab the opportunity to be out of the city for a while. And the highlight of this trip? But of course, things only Mongolia can offer: Mongolian foods and Sea-buckthorn harvesting.

Mongolian home-made cookies, jams (from freshly picked wild berries), mongolian butter

Boortsog - deep-fried mongolian cookies

Urum or white butter - clotted milk (sometimes they add it to their milk tea)

Nogootoi guriltai shol - noodle soup with vegetable (oops the soup's almost finished!)

dough for the buzz - mongolian dumpling

hoinni buuz - mongolian mutton dumpling

Suutei tsai - mongolian milk tea (they put salt instead of sugar;
they also add butter sometimes)

Talking about perfect timing, it was also harvest season for sea buckthorn! It was my first time to see the said plant since I was born in a tropical climate, and berries are not really grown in our place (well papel except for strawberries because we have it in Baguio). Buckthorn is a common term for shrub or small tree. And there are about 150 species of buckthorns. Sea buckthorn is also referred to as seaberry, sallowthorn or sandthorn. I did a little research over here and found out that sea buckthorn has so many health benefits (for health-conscious people reading this: here, here). According to webMD, the fruit is used for improving eyesight and slowing the aging process while the leaves and flowers are used for treating arthritis, gastrointestinal problems, gout and skin rashes. A tea containing sea buckthorn leaves is used as a source of vitamins, antioxidants and other minerals for improving blood pressure and lowering cholesterol and boosting immunity. The plant has so many thorns, making it difficult for us to harvest. The smell is not as good as I was expecting, and it tastes sour. But when I am thinking of all the good health benefits this fruit can offer, it's all worth it. Truly, we shouldn't prejudge the worth and value of something by it's appearance (and smell) alone.