Seconds anyone?

Being a vegetarian in other countries is often a challenge; in Mongolia it was impossible. So you can imagine my excitement when, three weeks ago, we stopped at our first Russian village and ventured in to restock on food. As we entered the small shop, I scanned the shelf's spotting not only oranges but also bananas, tomatoes and a variety of other fresh produce. My mouth started to salivate.

Both Eric and I are vegetarians, however during the first month of the trip we gave in to the local foods. The Mongolian diet is largely based on the animals they herd; meat, fat, and a hard dried and slightly mouldy milk product that they call cheese. When invited to share a meal with a family, it rarely mattered if it was breakfast, lunch or dinner; the same stew would often be served. Cooked in big cast iron wok, a broth with short flat noodles, unidentifiable meat and chunks of fat would be brewed. Occasionally an onion or cabbage would be added.

The trick was to avoid at all cost the first servings, as the chunks of fat all float to the top of their stews, and are scooped up into the first bowls of food. However as guest in their homes, we were always served first. Of course, I could never refuse their generous offers, for people who have so little they offer so much. Instead I would accept with a smile, take a deep breath and swallow the chunks of fat floating in my bowl (or discreetly slip them into Ulysses bowl).

Their diet was not the only thing scarce in vegetables; their shops were equally so. To make matters worse the distance between towns would often be more than a week, making perishables difficult to bring. We adapted to the conditions, and lived mainly off a bleak diet of oatmeal, stale cookies, rice and noodles.

Now on the populated cost of Baikal we pass towns every day allowing us to stock our food barrels with fresh produce. The small shops do have a limited section, yet compared to Mongolia we feel like little kids in candy shop. Our eyes bigger than our stomachs, we often overload our food barrels with oranges, apples, cheese, eggs, fresh bread, cabbage, red peppers, carrots and more.
By Sarah McNair-Landry