A Gastronomical Trip in Kyrgyzstan

After being in Kyrgyzstan for over ten weeks, one of the most interesting things to discover is how people eat differently than we do in the United States. To be clear, the food culture is different here and vegetarianism is just another way of saying that you aren’t going to get eat much. In describing some parts of the culture, we wanted to describe what people eat on a daily basis for meals.

Before describing the courses, we need to say a few things about how food is prepared here. First, fatty meat is preferred. In fact, mutton fat is considered to be one of the best and most important delicacies. A delicacy served at most celebrations is called, Mai, which is just pure fat. As foreigners, we offered quite a bit of mai. Second, most food is cooked in a lot of cooking oil, enough to put most American deep-fryers to shame. Needless to say, heart disease is the number one health problem. Third, all food comes with tea and bread. Finally, almost all food is homemade. There are some packaged foods, but they are generally expensive and not as good as the really thing.

Beshbarmok- The name of this food literally means “five thumbs” and is meant to be eaten with the hand acting as ladle, scooping the food into your mouth. In the northern part of the country, it is served at every celebration, usually at the end. (When trying to figure out how much longer a party is going to last, we can always count on the party breaking up about twenty minutes after beshbarmok is served.) Beshbarmok is also the only purely Kyrgyz dish. Beshbarmok is fairly simple in what it contains: thick homemade noodles comprise the base of the dish and it is topped with an assortment of meat, generally mutton (but sometimes cow or horse meat). When the noodles are made, they are cooked with the juices of the meat, which creates a salty, meat broth covering the noodles for flavor. Onions are often cut up to add flavor. The meat is placed on top of the noodles and is served in a large, communal serving dish. Being foreigners, we usually get plates and forks. Kyrgyz people consider the eyes, the brain, and the fat to be the tastiest parts of the meat. We have so far avoided the eyes and the brains.

Plov- Plov is an Uzbek rice-based dish that is one of our favorites. The primary ingredient is a flavorful and dense form of rice that is flavored with onion and carrots and topped with the meat of choice. It is cooked on a large wok-like pan over a fire pit. Usually the rice is fairly oily from the juice of the meats and cooking oil. The meat is served on top of large mound of rice in a communal serving dish. A lot of people eat it with a tomato and onion salad on top. Plov is the second most important dish in the north and the most important dish in the south of the country. Most families in our village ate it the night before Ramadan began.

Logman- This is Martin’s favorite Kyrgyz dish (even if it is actually Uzbek) and one of the few that can be made vegetarian. Logman is made of thick noodles, called kecme, served in a bowl with a medley of cooked, chopped vegetables over it (tomatoes, onions, eggplant, garlic, garlic, and a few other Kyrgyz vegetables). Usually, logman also has small pieces of lean meat. What really adds to the taste is that the broth from the cooked vegetables is usually added as a stock to the bottom of the bowl.

Shorpo- This is basically a stew made from seasonal vegetables (there is almost always some carrots, potatoes, onions, and cabbage that are available), a meat broth, and strips of meat. This will probably be a staple in the winter, but is also served regularly in the summer.

Manti- Lauren is becoming an expert at making manti, so hopefully she will be able to make it for whoever wants it when we get back to the US. Manti is a steamed dumpling containing finely diced potatoes, onions, and meat. The real difficulty in making it is making the dumpling.

Virenik- Another steamed dumpling meal made with mashed potatoes on the inside.

Pelmen- A Russian dumpling meal with ground meat on the inside. In Russia, it is served with ketchup. In Kyrgyzstan, the dumplings are boiled and it is served a soup.

Besides these complex foods, there are plenty of simple foods made for quick meals, such as fried potatoes, boiled eggs, buckwheat with vegetables and meat, and peanut butter and jelly (just kidding about the pb & j, but we can always dream). One of the best dinners that we have in this country was an extremely simple meal of fresh onion bread and sliced tomatoes. May sound basic, but are mouths still water thinking about it.