Khuushuur

Flat, crescent-shaped pastries filled with seasoned minced meat and deep-fried until golden and crisp.

Khuushuur is a popular Mongolian street and festival food, especially associated with the Naadam festival, Mongolia's annual celebration of wrestling, horse racing and archery, where stalls sell them by the thousands to spectators. Unlike the steamed buuz, khuushuur is deep-fried, giving it a crisp shell that makes it well suited to festival and outdoor eating. It shares the same basic filling as buuz but is shaped flat and sealed at the edges rather than pleated and steamed.

The pastry is rolled thin and folded flat over a meat filling before frying, distinct from the pleated, steamed shape of buuz. It should fry up with a crisp, slightly bubbled shell while the meat inside stays juicy.