It’s evening in the Mongolian empire. Kublai Khan and his army are tired after a day of conquering the world, so they stop for dinner. Kill the lamb! They slice up the fresh meat with their swords and grill it on top of their shields. Taadaa – Mongolian Barbecue is born!

Wow, you might say, that’s a cool story – was it really like that? No, not really. The fact that you now can eat Mongolian BBQ in the country it is named after is a long story which involves inventive Taiwanese chefs, Japanese teppanyaki and American fast food chains.

But let's first take a look at the real Mongolian traditions and how they transform into modern society. We didn't hesitate to travel out to the Mongolian countryside over bad or nonexistent roads to bring you the latest design news. We traveled over deep rivers...

... asked around at shops...

... checked with the locals ...

... looked in every ger ...

... and even tried out local handicraft...

... but we found out that most interesting modern Mongolian design happens in the cities. Could there be a better place to explore Mongolian branding and marketing than bd’s Mongolian BBQ in UB (Ulan Bator)? Except, of course, that the concept is not very Mongolian.

The idea is simple – choose your ingredients, select a sauce, hand it over to the chef and he will throw it around on the very VERY hot and large iron plate. If you’re lucky he puts on a show, juggles with the long frying ‘swords’ and might even set your food on fire. Dinner is served.

So, what’s with the background? It seems that Mongolian BBQ was created by inventive Taiwanese a few decades back as a derivation from Japanese Teppanyaki. It spread to the rest of the world to food palaces of various qualities. In the US, chain restaurants such as bd’s Mongolian BBQ opened. Four years ago, bd’s barbeque decided to bring back the Mongolian barbeque to its ‘home country’ and proudly introduced the concept with a restaurant in Ulan Bator. We can report that the Mongols seem to love it – the place is packed with the high society locals eating away on freshly fried stuff. Or maybe they just love having a reliable American restaurant to go too. In any case, we see the Mongolian BBQ in Ulan Bator as an interesting example of how concepts and ideas travel around our globalized planet. And it says something about the importance of having a good story to tell, no matter if it’s actually true or not.

We would like to encourage all of you to do the same. As a design and marketing exercise: send us your suggestions of a national product or concept that never really existed. Swiss massage? Scandinavian sun lotion? Email ideanomads[@]ideanomads.com with your suggestions. 

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