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Genghis Khans

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Liam Hetherington
Liam Hetherington
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5 out of 5
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58) Genghis Khans - All You Khan Eat!

58) Genghis Khans - All You Khan Eat!

Mongolia – 02/11/09

I have to give Genghis Khans (formerly ‘The Mongolian Barbecue’) marks for non-authenticity. You see, I have actually been to Mongolia. And the food there was pretty much consistently the worst I have had in any country (it was the anti-Morocco if you like). Little veg, little choice, a diet consisting primarily of mutton, stodge and fat washed down with salty tea and fermented mare’s milk – not my taste in cuisines. If it hadn’t been for a decent pizzeria in Ulaanbaatar I think I may have despaired!

Thankfully, Genghis Khans (no apostrophe!) is that strange thing, a Mongolian barbecue. And despite the fact that apparently a Mongolian Barbecue has now opened up in Ulaanbaatar (or ‘UB’ as we old hands call it), I’m really not sure how authentic this mode of cooking is. Their website and menus tell of how in the age of the great Khan his mighty warriors would feast by thinly slicing meat with their swords and then cook it over a fire on their upturned shields. This sounds like another myth about the eating habits of these war-parties (to go with how they would pack the underneath of their saddles with raw meat to stop it rubbing against their steeds – hence steak tartare). If anything the place was more reminiscent of a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant.

Arriving at 6pm on a Monday night, Paul and I found the place almost full. We were found a table though, and presented with menus. While they do have various starters, accompaniments and desserts the main deal here is the £12.95 Genghis Grill. This is essentially an all-you-can-eat buffet. Taking a clean bowl the diner helps themselves to their choice of meat (on our trip the choices were pork, beef, chicken, turkey, salmon, pangasius, squid, shrimps, or kangaroo(!)). They then top this with their selection of vegetables, from mushrooms to mange tout, beansprouts to bamboo, peppers to pak choi to pineapple. They then slop over ladles of different sauces, and top with their choice of herbs and spices. The bowl is then handed to the chefs, who will sizzle and stir-fry it on a huge gas-fired hotplate. When cooked, the diner takes the food in a new bowl and eats with chopsticks. And when finished, goes back, gets a new bowl, and starts all over again!

There are some suggested recipes on the wall. I never got around to the Ulan Beef, but the Bator Beef (which I had with onion, red pepper and spinach) is made with one ladle of tomato & herb sauce, one of wine, half a ladle of mustard sauce, and teaspoons of salt, black pepper and cajun spices. I also tried the Tengai Fish, where lemon, soy and garlic sauces were added to my salmon and leeks, and then topped with black pepper, salt and oregano. The other suggested recipe I had a go at was the Samarkand Chicken (so can I count this as Uzbekistan as well…?): half a ladle of soy sauce, a ladle of babrbecue sauce, a ladle of beer, and sprinkled with ginger, black pepper and salt. Of course you can also go off-piste – I also had kangaroo, mushrooms, beansprouts and bamboo shoots with oyster and soy sauces sprinkled with pepper, rosemary and five-spice.

So really, the food is pretty good value. The meat was fresh, the veg was crisp, and you get the added theatre of the Mongolian chefs sizzling your dinner away on the griddle. You can’t really argue with unlimited grub for £12.95. And here’s an additional secret: on Monday evenings two dine for the price of one. So two eat for that £12.95 price point - less than £6.50 each! Despite this, Paul still decided he wanted to pay extra for a dessert – in this case Genghis Khan’s Peach Schnapper. This was a slice of cheesecake very strongly flavoured with peach schnapps. Still, I hear that ol' Genghis was keen on his Archers…

In general drinks are on the pricey side, but I expected that from a restaurant. Sadly there was no Mongolian beer on offer (the local Chinggis Brau I was drinking in Mongolia was surprisingly good!). Instead I had Japanese Kirin - £3.25 for a 330ml bottle. But even having a couple of these, and including tip, the pair of us got absolutely stuffed for £15 each.

I suppose that if I were to offer any caveat it would be that all meals are cooked up on the same stove. And while the chefs do clean it as they go along I imagine there is a danger of cross-contamination. So while vegetarians and vegans could eat perfectly well on the vegetables on offer, it would be cooked on the same hotplate as meat. Likewise shrimps and squid are cooked on it too, just to warn those on a kosher or halal diet. And more pressingly some recipes do feature chopped nuts, so those with nut allergies may want to be aware of that!

But on the whole I think this meal was one of the more fun I’ve had this year. So much so, that I have actually booked my office’s Christmas meal here!

I would never have done that in Mongolia...

From journal Around The World In 80 Meals! (part 6)

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