How to Make a Mongolian Cabbage Salad

Cindy: Because Mongolia has over 250 sunny days a year, it’s often referred to as the land of blue sky and we hoped to be bringing some beautiful sunshine here to our guest Odnoo Celik and her family. I can’t wait to meet her.

Odnoo: Welcome to my house. Come on in.

Cindy: Thank you so much. This is for you, its mint leaves.

Odnoo: Welcome Cindy again. This is my kitchen.

Cindy: Thank you so much for having me. So what are you preparing for us today?

Odnoo: I’m going to show you how to make cabbage salad right now but before the salad, I want you to taste the Mongolian tea. I have a Mongolian tea, milk tea. I also put a little bit of salt inside. I have boiling water here and just added little Mongolian black tea.

Cindy: Black tea and its loose tea. You don’t put it in a bag or anything.

Odnoo: No, you have to put it like this but small amount. And then I have salt.

Cindy: Is this regular, just sea salt?

Odnoo: Yes it’s a regular salt a little bit.

Cindy: I never saw tea made like this before. This is going to be great.

Odnoo: And then milk. I think you never heard about it.

Cindy: So you just boil some regular water and then add all these ingredients together?

Odnoo: Yes. I’m going to boil it again I’m going to put the milk to boil it. Right now I can show you how to make cabbage salad.

Cindy: What are the ingredients that go into a cabbage salad?

Odnoo: This is a cabbage shredded, and also carrots and onions same amount. And then sugar and a little bit of salt. This is vinegar and vegetable oil and some water.

Cindy: So when you mix all these things together, you probably get a nice combination of some sweet and salty at the same time.

Odnoo: Yes. I'm going to mix all the ingredients together.

Cindy: So you mix the liquids first to make the—I guess the dressing right?

Odnoo: Yes for the dressing.

Cindy: I never had sugar in—

Odnoo: Yes it makes it a little sweet. And I'm going to put the cabbage and then carrots, onions and then the sauce.

Cindy: Mix it up real good.

Odnoo: Then mix it together.

Cindy: Now when is a good time to have cabbage salad? What do you usually serve it with?

Odnoo: Usually, for the dinner and whenever you want it.

Cindy: It makes a good side dish for on trays and things. It looks especially very easy to make.

Odnoo: It’s really easy but we have to wait a couple of minutes to —

Cindy: To absorb the mixtures and everything.

Odnoo: Yes, that’s our cabbage salad right now.

Cindy: It looks wonderful. That’s fantastic, a nice and easy especially when you have those unexpected guests coming over. That is delicious. It is amazing how the salt and the salad really balance out. It’s absolutely wonderful. That would make a very nice side dish.

The flavors in the salad will continue to blend, but the milk tea is ready. And there is no time like the present to indulge in a cup.

So we are ready to try the milk tea? I’m dying to try this.

Odnoo: Yes I think our tea is ready for you.

Cindy: Now when do you usually serve milk tea?

Odnoo: Tea is always. Everyday, in the morning, afternoon, lunch time, dinner time, every time we drink tea. Usually in America they drink water right? So we are drinking milk tea.

Cindy: Milk tea, wonderful. Well this will be my first experience with milk tea so I’m really looking forward to this. It’s very rich. I wasn’t expecting that. That’s wonderful. You can really taste the herbs from the tea. And why do they put salt in the milk tea?

Odnoo: We don’t like it too much sweet things. We don’t use too much sugar, sugar things. I don’t know that’s why they use and put the salt.

Cindy: So more salt than sugar.

Odnoo: We like to salt things.

Cindy: Very nice and in just a few moments, Odnoo is going to take us into her living room and show us some wonderful Mongolian culture. So stay tune, we’ll be right back.