The fresh yogurt (老酸奶, or "old yogurt" as it is marketed) sold from street stalls around the Dazhao Temple area is one of Hohhot's genuine street food pleasures. The yogurt is thick, slightly sour, and sold in small unglazed earthenware pots that you take away and return or simply keep — they cost almost nothing. The dairy tradition in Hohhot is directly connected to the Mongolian pastoral culture of the surrounding grasslands; the city's two major dairy companies, Yili and Mengniu, both originated here and the raw milk supply chain is visible in the number of small dairy product vendors across the city.
Beyond the yogurt, the street stalls in the temple market area sell milk skin (奶皮, naipi) — the layer that forms on boiled milk when it cools, dried and cut into strips with a slightly creamy, faintly chewy texture — and dried cheese balls (奶酪, nailao) which are tart and dense. These are traditional Mongolian food preservation products, developed for carrying on horseback across the steppe, and they taste exactly like what they are.