Video: A Traditional Mongolian Goat Roast, As Gnarly As You Would Think [NSFW]
In a story published in independent food and politics journal Roads & Kingdoms, journalist Brett Forrest travels to Mongolia to try something called bodog (pronounced bow-dug), which involves roasting the meat of a wooly goat in its own skin. It's an ancient tradition, which Forrest beautifully details with the critical verve of a Chaucerian Sam Sifton.
"Brown pellets issued from the goat's bowels, spilling like jackpot coins to the ground and mixing with the flecks of tissue on the tamped-down grass and straw. Looking away, I caught sight of Narantunglag's herd of sheep and goat, which came into view on a nearby hill, dark specks against the snow. The goat that Narantunglag and Ganzorig were dismantling once belonged to that group, and those animals migrated up the incline, pausing now and again to kick at the snow with their hooves and find the grasses underneath it. Over the distance, a sheep's bleating call reached me, and then the answer of another. When I looked back to the slaughter, I noticed that the pellets were all gone from the ground, along with the tissue, the dogs indiscriminate in their search for protein."
We're not going to spoil the ending, but we can say that Forrest ate some of the bodog, with a dagger, while sipping vodka out of a shared glass. It does not taste like chicken.
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