One of the Mongolian national traditions is Airag, aka fermented mares milk. What coke is to Americans, Airag is to Mongolians. Ulaanaa and his sister Sumiya round up and lasso the foals and tie them up for the day. At the end of the day the mares are milked and the buckets brought to Adiya, their grandmother, to start the fermenting process. The milk is put into a hide skin bag and hung in the ger. The milk needs to be stirred often over a few days. Anyone passing the skin bags picks up the wooden spoon and gives the milk a couple of stirs.
The taste is...well... sour with a fizz, not delicious, but not bad either. It is custom to offer a bowl of this milk to anyone visiting a ger, and good manners to accept graciously and drink. Thank goodness for the alcohol as it was an incentive to keep drinking!
Drinking Airag
