Press: October 8, 1988
Thank You & Request from Mongolia
Sainshand City, Dornogobi Province, Mongolia
To Whom It May Concern:
Hey there. Hilary Anne Exon here, writing from Mongolia. You can consider this letter both a heartfelt letter of thanks and maybe a request.
I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer living here in the Gobi desert in the middle of Asia. Mongolia is a country of about 2.5 million souls and about 16 times as many head of livestock. It is a land of vast open spaces, beautiful landscapes and amazing people. It has it all—mountains, forests, steppes, desert, rivers, lakes, sand dunes and glaciers. It has a continental climate which means it is very warm in the summer and incredibly cold in the winter. Here in the Gobi they say the range is 45 degrees Celsius in the summer and as cold as 55 degrees Celsius below in the winter. It’s a place of startling contrast between old and young, traditional and modern. It’s a fascinating but challenging place to live. I got here a year ago and I have one, maybe two more years to go.
I’m a Californian but went to UNC; I graduated with a degree in International Studies in 1996. While in Chapel Hill, I worked at Mondo Bistro for a year. Then I moved to Durham and worked at Nana’s, while my partner worked as a cook at the Magnolia Grill for Ben and Karen Barker. After my arrival in Mongolia I wrote to the Barkers in an appeal for anything that makes food taste good. They sent me your Jamaican Jerk Spice. I’d go so far as to say that it saved my life.
A strong statement, to be sure, but totally accurate. Having worked at the Bistro and Nana’s and having a professional cook for a housemate probably spoiled me, I’ll freely admit. But all of that notwithstanding, I have to say that Mongolian food has to be the most pathetic cuisine on the face of the planet. I don’t mean to criticize or denigrate the Mongolian culture by saying so, but facts are facts. It’s pretty appalling. Keep in mind that this is primarily a nomadic herding culture, so if it’s not meat or dairy, it’s revolutionary. The basics of the diet here are meat, fat (yes, big juicy globs of it) and flour. In the town where I lived last year, those were the staples. Vegetables are available in the larger towns, an astonishing variety of potatoes, onions, turnips and carrots. Mutton is the big favorite here, but you can also get goat, beef, yak, and here in the Gobi, camel and horse meat. I must say that I love lamb, but mutton is a far cry from lamb. The beef is chewy, the yak is chewier, goat is funky, the camel leathery and horse meat doesn’t really seem like an option. A typical holiday celebration will feature a boiled sheep tail which is made exclusively of fat, served cold so that you can slice off little delicious bits one at a time. This, along with a bowl of boiled guts and boiled bones make the spread. Oh, and congealed fat and dried milk curd and vodka distilled from horse mare’s milk. NOT an Epicurean delight, I promise.
So, all that said, we volunteers do what we can to make food good. It’s pretty challenging sometimes. You can get good ramen here, but having been a college student in every sense of the word, ramen once every year is too much. When I got the package from the Barker’s with the jerk spice, I did cartwheels. Then I tried it and did back flips. I ate jerked fried potatoes with onion and garlic and even jerked marinated yak meat. Bet you’ve never heard of that one before. I’m getting ready to try it with camel. Still trying to work up the nerve, though.
I lived at a National Park that featured a lake, a river (home to meter and a half long salmon), a volcano, a huge basalt field, ice caves, alpine vegetation and a plentitude of wildlife. We had a wetlands area that was nesting grounds to thirty species of birds, all of them incredible, many of them endangered. Because of my luck in site assignment, I had the added benefit of getting a lot of visitors. I had scads of volunteers come to see me and I played hostess to the many foreign travelers who came through. I had a sort of hostel going, hoping to build up my own travel karma when the time comes, and met Israelis, Belgians, New Zealanders and Japanese, French, German, Italian and Swiss folks, many of whom came and stayed with me or at the very least shared a meal. Many times I prepared the jerked potatoes and every time I got compliments. Everyone asked where I got it and everyone wished they had some. The good news is that I fed a lot of hungry people a good meal. The bad news is that I’m almost out.
The good news for you all is that your product has name recognition with upwards of 30 Peace Corps Volunteers and other assorted wandering souls. The bad news is that that I’m asking you for more. I could be the only Peace Corps Volunteer worldwide sponsored by Caribbean Bliss. What I propose is this: you send as much or as little of whatever product suits your needs (though the Jamaican Jerk suits mine, and if there’s a lot I’ll share with other needy Volunteers), and I in return will a) give you my unending gratitude and b) should you decide at anytime that yak/camel jerking is worth mentioning in any way, shape or form, I will provide any pictures of Mongolia you might require, or at the very least, some sort of testimonial. Plus I can send other cool Mongolian stuff. I guess that on the balance, this works more to my benefit than to yours, but surely you can see the potential for a huge impact on the health and sanity of Peace Corps Mongolia. It’s a rough place and we need all the love we can get.
If you decide that sending product is not in your best interest, I fully understand. Please know, though, that you all and the good you create have literally saved my ass and made for many good days, and for that I thank you. Hopefully I’ll hear something for you soon. At least let me know if you like the pictures and we’ll be even.
Thanks a lot for your time and take care. Enjoy North Carolina for me. I miss it.
Your friendly Peace Corps Volunteer,
Hilary Anne Exon
Editor’s note: A case of Pluto’s Caribbean Bliss was immediately sent for the cause. We hope she received it!
