Being vegetarian in Mongolia
One of the problems that vegans and vegetarians face while travelling in Mongolia is where they can buy vegan meals. Tourists stumble over a dilemma – would they rather compromise their veganism or upset nomadic hosts during their trips.
Mongolia is one of the few countries where has least vegan places in the world.
Major population’s diet is hugely made up of dairy and meat. In some other countries’ blogs about Mongolia, tourists rely on the hospitality of nomadic family during the trip. Also they say if guest do not eat or drink what they serve, it would offend the hosts. However, the nomadic families, living in tourist destinations, are getting used to it and not offended at all nowadays. So you do not need worry so much about it when you are with your tour guide. But if you are travelling by yourself (maybe with only a driver who do not speak English or whatever language you speak), you exactly need to learn how to say no milk or no meat in Mongolian.
Most tourists visiting in Mongolia usually do organized trip, which is really good. Make sure let them know that what you eat and cannot eat to your tour company. Therefore, the restaurants and camps you pass during trip will prepare your meal on time. Sometimes tourists need to cook by themselves during trip when staying overnight in countryside. Ingredients for the picnic are mostly on tour company, but it is better to pick up some things and snacks from grocery for your trip such as veggies, tofu and faux meat etc.
A few years ago, there were very few groceries and restaurants selling vegetarian products, but today they have increased dramatically. Vegetarian restaurants are mainly located in Ulaanbaatar. In addition to the restaurants that are more accustomed to tourists (which means they serve both vegetarian and ordinary meal with meat), many vegetarian restaurants are arising these days.
We round up some vegetarian restaurants located in a heart of the Ulaanbaatar city and listed below:
- Veranda restaurants
- Luna Blanca restaunrats
- Loving hut – vegan counter-serve chain
- The Green zone restaurant
- Los Angeles restaurant
- Delhi Darbar Indian restaurant etc.
