Looking for vegetables

Our route south today (for the first 100 km) was on a road that continued to be nothing more than vehicle ruts in the steppes. The scenery was spectacular with colorful mountains all around, and those to the west were set off wonderfully by the morning light. About lunch time we saw a large body of water to the south and slightly east, our map named it Khar-Us Nuur (hang on wasn't that the same name as last nights lake ?? - we have noticed that many place names get used over and over again in Mongolia - very confusing for tourists).

Not long after lunch the road transformed from vehicle ruts to an actual constructed gravel road and this led us to a well constructed bridge over the Buyant River (this river flows into Khar-Us Nuur). Over the bridge the road was actually sealed; what a surprise and pleasure - driving on a sealed road again. Though to be honest the sealed road was so bumpy that we traveled no faster than on the gravel road. The sealed road continued all the way into Khovd City (ХОВД ХОТ).

After paying our 1000 T toll at the entrance to the town we went looking for the Nomin Supermarket described in the LonelyPlanet guide. We found it eventually but discovered it was to open in 5 days and the workers were in the process of painting and stocking it. How the LonelyPlanel managed to reference a shop that is (even now) not yet open is a mystery to Nina and I. However we found a nearby Minimarket and stocked up on packaged and processed food items - but no vegetables.

An extended search of many tight alleys of the local market failed to find the vegatable stalls. After being given some directions by a young lady (who spoke some English) at a local gas station we made a second search of the market for vegetables but still no luck. Very perplexing; as we saw vegetables growing as we approached the town from the north and the LonelPlanet told us that the town had a food processing plant, and an Agricultural University.