Food and drink

Kazakhs have developed a number of techniques to preserve and prepare their main commodities, meat and milk. These methods are still in use today: salting, drying, smoking, pickling or even a combination of these. In the past, one rather piquant process of salting ^and tenderizing was to place a flat piece of meat under your saddle until it was “ridden to tenderness”, the horse’s sweat serving to salt the meat. Travellers may find comfort in the thought that this kind of preservation is no longer practised.

T he following glossary of food and drink should make it easier to read menus and Provide visitors to a dastarkhan with some background information. The most popular Kazakh dishes and a number of commonly eaten Korean, Uygur, Uzbek and Arabian dishes are included.

Food and drink based on milk

Kumis/kumys: Mare's milk fermented in a smoke-cured leather bag - a surprisingly refreshing, thirst-quenching drink.

Ayran: Kefir or a type of salt lassi made from skimmed or full-fat cow’s, sheep’s, goat’s or mare’s milk.

Katyk: Sour milk heated in the oven.

Shubat: Camel's milk with a high fat content, fermented in a leather bag. Shubat is used to treat tuberculosis and intestinal pain.

Irkit: A well-shaken mix consisting of freshly boiled, cooled and soured milk. Koyirtpak: A cocktail, rich in calories, of fresh milk, ayran, katyk, kumis and shubat.

Ashygan Kozhe: Boiled and soured groats from wheat, millet or rice, mixed with wheat flour and usually with milk, ayran or sour cream.

Chay po-kazakhskiy: “Kazakh tea” - black tea prepared in a special way. Heated milk is poured into a kese (tea bowl) and tea is added to it. People take special care not to fill up the bowl to its edge to prevent guests from burning their fingers. It is served with dried fruits, sweets and baursaki.

Kurt: Small dried balls from soured cow, sheep or goat's milk.

Balkaymak: Honey cream, made from boiled cream, mixed with sugar, honey and flour and added to tea.

Irimshik: Dried raw milk quark (low-fat soft cheese).

Saryssu: Dried small flans made from boiled and cooled whey.

Suzbe: Strained and salted quark made from ayran.

Dishes from cereals

Zhent: Also called Kazakh chocolate. Millet and irimshik are mixed in a mortar with sugar, butter and raisins. The mixture is stiffened by cooling and cut into small slices.

Zhanyshpa: Soft dessert from ground millet, sugar, butter and sour cream.

Millet with kurt: Millet poured into pounded kurt, softened in hot water.

Talkan: Roasted millet, wheat and maize pounded in a mortar, with butter, sour cream, stock or raw eggs then added.

Sut Kozhe and Kurniyas: Millet soup with milk, sometimes thickened with flour.

Cold first courses

K azy: Usually lean horse rib, well seasoned, and dried in horse intestines, then hot-smoked and cooked. It is cut into slices and served on large plates as a starter. Shuzhuk: Like kazy, with the same ingredients, but with half fat and half lean horsemeat.

Zhaya: Salted, dried and subsequently smoked and cooked meat from a horse's hip, served in slices.

Zhal: The long strip of fat under a horse's mane is cut ₀ff with a thin layer of flesh and prepared in the same way as zhaya.

Sur-Yet: Tender horsemeat with tendons and gristle removed is first salted and dried, and then served cooked.

Fish platter "Assorti": Noble fish (sturgeon, salmon, carp) served on a large platter with caviar and bread. Take care in restaurants, where this “assorti” can turn out to be particularly expensive.

Shalgam salad: Spicy salad from finely sliced radish and paprika.

Korean salad, carrots Korean-style: Spicy salad from finely sliced carrots.