Chicken Gordon Blue

Ordering off restaurant menus in Mongolia requires the spiritual gift of discernment. Basically, you have to read between the lines and use your experience to predict what you're going to get. I've learned over time that what the menu says is not exactly what you'll get, but generally what you get tastes pretty good. So you just order in faith and it usually turns out fine.

Recently I had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in Darkhan, called "Nice Cafe." Real original, right? One of the items on the menu was called "Chicken Gordon Blue." The short description read "chicken chest and cheese." It's difficult to find decent chicken, but I decided to try it. Turns out, it was disappointing. It consisted of two very thin, dry pieces of breaded chicken with a cheese slice melted in between them. And when I say cheese slice - think of the plastic-wrapped Kraft singles you buy in the grocery. The good thing is, food is so cheap that you don't feel too ripped off about a bad $3 meal.

I'm eating at home a fair amount, too. Choices at the food stores are slowly improving. This year's greatest news for me is that you can now buy SLICED BREAD at the grocery store! Up until this year, you either sliced your own bread or bought sliced bread in UB, the capital city (a 3 hour drive one-way). The funny thing is, I would bet the only people who buy the sliced bread are the foreigners. But isn't is strange that previously you could have your pick of the latest cell phones, but sliced bread was just too much of a luxury?!