Asia

Snacks from Mongolia

Mongolian snacking is aaruul, dried curd that can be sweet or sour, chewed on horseback or in a Ulaanbaatar taxi. Boortsog fried dough with tea. Ul boov, the layered biscuit of Tsagaan Sar. Airag is a drink. Suutei tsai, salty milk tea, is the vehicle. Factory candies exist in shops. The steppe snack is dried dairy, not a steamed dumpling — buuz is a meal.

Updated August 27, 2026

Signature snacks: Aaruul, Boortsog, Ul boov, Eezgii
Flavor palette: dried curd, fried dough, salty tea
When people snack: aaruul with suutei tsai and boortsog for guests
What travelers buy: aaruul, ul boov in season, packaged boortsog if dry

What to try first

Aaruul Dried milk curds, sometimes sugared, the portable Mongolian chew.
Boortsog Fried dough pieces, eaten with tea and butter or sugar.
Ul boov Stacked ceremonial biscuits for Lunar New Year, later eaten as snacks.
Eezgii Toasted dry cheese crumbs, another dairy travel food.
Khuushuur leftovers Fried meat pockets sometimes eaten cold, though they are a meal first.

Aaruul looks like rocks and tastes like concentrated yogurt, sometimes with sugar. It is the snack that matches the climate. Boortsog is the fried dough of the ger and the city kitchen. Ul boov appears at Tsagaan Sar in towers, then gets broken and eaten for days.

Salty milk tea is not optional. Pack aaruul. Buuz stay a meal. Do not paste a Kazakh baursak paragraph without aaruul; dried curd is the Mongolian object.

Questions about snacks from Mongolia

What snacks is Mongolia known for?

Aaruul dried curd, boortsog, ul boov biscuits, and eezgii, all with salty milk tea.

What is aaruul?

Dried curds from milk, hard, portable, sometimes sweetened, chewed as a travel snack.

What travels?

Aaruul and dry ul boov. Fresh boortsog is better the day it is fried.

From the journal

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