Khorkhog, With Fingers

Khorkhog is mutton cooked in a sealed vessel with stones heated in fire, and it comes to the table as a steaming argument for abandoning cutlery. You eat with your hands. There is no alternative technique and no reason to want one.

The festival tent had a whole pot going and I was handed a rib the size of my forearm. Grease to the wrist, smoke in the meat, and the hot stones passed from palm to palm afterward, which is said to be good for the health and is definitely good for cold fingers.

The photograph shows a woman mid-rib with no remaining pretensions. I have eaten more elegantly on this continent. I have rarely eaten better.