Kazakhstan is a country in the Central Asia that many tourists know nothing about, so now we are going to answer to the question, what to eat in Kazakhstan and what to expect from their national food?
First of all, it will be pretty hard to find locals in the famous fast-food restaurants, to be honest, the locals don’t love them and even if they go, it’s just out of curiosity, nothing more. Even if they want burgers, they prefer to make some themselves, in the end it’s much cheaper, tastier and more useful for the body.
Most Kazakh dishes prepared using meat that is cooked or stewed, rarely – fried. Due to religious restrictions Pork is not used, but very common type of meats are lamb, horsemeat and beef, but we’ll talk more about it later.
Kazakhs also very much like to drink tea, it is a ritual, just like in Japan. At the table (dastarkhan) the whole family is together. Tea is drunk from small flat cups without handles (pialok), preferably with milk, just like the typical British breakfast. The tea is usually accompanied by some pastries, the most popular of which is baursaks (small balls fried in vegetable oil)
Several common drinks are koumiss, which is a special way of fermenting the mare’s milk (it has medicinal properties by the way!), airan- a fermented drink diluted with water and used as a refreshing drink; katyk- a traditional sour milk; As it might seem already obvious, the locals love dairy products, not only drinks by the way, but also cottage cheese, which is used in many traditional dishes.
The list of traditional Kazakh dishes is long and really fascinating, so we chose just the best of the best:
Sorpa- a strong broth which is poured into large bowls. Sorpa can be made with different fillings and help you create your new favourite soup.
For the preparation of Laghman fry and then stew the following ingredients: meat, then chopped onions, carrots, paprika (sometimes add cabbage, eggplant and radishes) and potatoes. Fill with water and leave to stew. At the end of cooking add some special Laghman noodles and serve with parsley.
Kuyrdak is roasted lamb liver, lung and meat served with potatoes, it can be eaten both freshly made and cold
During holidays, Kazakh people love to eat Kazy- a typical traditional sausage from horse meat, which is considered a delicacy. To prepare the meat cut from the ribs with bacon, rub with salt, pepper and garlic. Then fold in the washed equine intestine. Boil and cooled.
Though at first when reading it, it might seem strange and way too exotic, the dishes are really extremely tasty and represent a rare delicacy for the Westerners, so don’t lose the chance of trying the kazakh national food during your visit to Kazakhstan!