Cuisine of Kyrgyzstan

The Cuisine of Kyrgyzstan is similar to that of its neighbors in many respects, particularly Kazakh cuisine.

Traditional Kyrgyz food revolves around horse and mutton meat, as well as various milk products. The cooking techniques and major ingredients has been strongly influenced by the nation's nomadic way of life. For example, most cooking techniques are mostly aimed at long-term preservation of food. Mutton is the favorite meat, although it is not always affordable.

Meat in various forms has always been the primary ingredient of Kyrgyz cuisine. Among the most popular meat dishes are horsemeat sausages, roasted sheep's liver, besh barmak (boiled meat and small pieces of dough and starch) and various other horse delicacies.

Besh barmak (commonly called "Narin" in Xinjiang) is a popular Kyrgyz dish. The term "Besh barmak" means "five fingers", because the dish is eaten with the hands. Besh barmak consists of boiled horse or mutton meat with small pieces of pastry boiled in broth and sprinkled with parsley and coriander.

Boiled sheep's head is put before the most honorable guest, who cuts the bits and parts from the head and offers them to the other guests at the table.

A noodle dish, laghman, is very popular, as is the rice dish pulau or plov (related etymology to pilaf).

Plov is the staple everyday food, and is also served at celebrations. It consists of chunks of mutton, shredded yellow turnip and rice fried in a large Dutch oven. Shashlyk, skewered chunks of mutton grilled over charcoal which come with raw sliced onions is served in restaurants and often sold in the street. Manty are dumplings filled with ground meat and onions. Shorpa is a meat and vegetable soup.

"Pierozhki", originating in Ukraine, are small boiled dumplings of meat and vegetables similar to ravioli, sometimes served in a vegetable soup.

Bread is usually served with nan, traditional Central Asian flat bread, and thick sturdy Russian breads are also popular.

The most well-known drink is fermented mare's milk, kumis. Other traditional drinks are sheep milk and its products, and camel's milk.

Kyrgyzstan is home to many different nationalities and their various cuisines. In larger cities, such as Bishkek, Osh, Jalal-Abad and Karakol, you can find many options at any price range. On the road and in the villages, the cuisine tends to be standard Kyrgyz dishes, liberally flavored with oil or sheep fat, which are considered both delicious and extremely healthy by the local population.

Bread and tea ("Nan y Chai") are considered almost sacred by the native people. A good host always offers their guests bread and tea, even if the guests are only staying for a few moments. Kyrgyz bread is cooked over coals in tandoori-like ovens. It is round and relatively flat. The local people love to dip it in their homemade jams or "ayran", a thick cream somewhat like cream cheese.

"Shashlik" is meat that has been marinated for hours then cooked on spears over smoking coals. Shashlik is made from beef, chicken, and fish, but most especially from mutton. Each shashlik usually has a fat ratio of one-to-one with meat. They are delicious when cooked fresh, but after being allowed to sit for a time (as is often the case with "Bazaar" shashlik) they can cool into greasy blobs.

"Samsi" are little pockets of meat and vegetables wrapped in flakey pastry, very similar to Indian samosas. They are stuffed with mutton and fat most often, but are also made with chicken, cheese, cabbage, and beef. The can be bought in most bazaars or on street corners in larger cities.

The Kyrgyz national dish is "Besh Barmak", the "Five Fingers", so called because it was traditionally eaten by hand. It is essentially meat (horse, beef, or mutton) boiled in its own broth for several hours, served over homemade noodles. This dish is most often made during a feast to celebrate a birth or important birthday, or to mourn a death, either at a funeral or on an anniversary.

A version of rice pilaf called "plov" is prepared throughout the country, but said to be made best in the South, as it is traditionally an Uzbek dish. It is cooked over a fire in a large semi-circular pot called a "kazan". Plov is made from pieces of meat (chicken, mutton or beef) cooked in hot oil, then mixed with chopped carrots and rice, as well as raisins or apricots depending on the preference of the cook.

"Lagman" is a dish that consists of thick homemade noodles covered in chopped peppers and other vegetables in a vinegary, spicy sauce. This is served almost everywhere in Kyrgyzstan, but is said not to be a Kyrgyz dish at all, but rather a Dungan one.

A popular Kyrgyz beverage that can only be found in the summer time is called "kymyz". It is a slightly alcoholic drink made from fermented mares' milk, and can be purchased on the roadside in the mountains from May until August.

External links

* [http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Kyrgyzstan/Dining Kyrgyz dining]