What to eat Kyrgyzstan? culinary specialties and gastronomy

As in most Central Asian countries, there's a fine line between starter and main course, and in Kyrgyzstan tables are often generously laid with all kinds of dishes: soups, turnovers, rice, noodles, stews and grilled meats. There are several types of savoury pastry, such as samsa, whose name is obviously a variation on the Indian word samoussa. These are triangular doughnuts filled with meat and baked in earthen ovens. You'll find them everywhere in the bazaars of Central Asia, and they're perfect as a snack for impromptu cravings. In Kyrgyzstan, they come with cheese or vegetables (cabbage, onion, squash, potato), ideal if you've had enough of meat.

Some dishes are more Chinese-inspired, more or less resembling the steamed bites you'll find on the other side of the border. This is particularly true of manti, also very popular with Kyrgyz. These steamed ravioli (cooked in baskets called mantovarka) are stuffed with mutton and onions. They can sometimes be very fatty. Pelmeni is a soupy variant of this dish, inherited from Russian cuisine. In various parts of Kyrgyzstan, they are also enjoyed fried in a spicy sauce. Unlike manti, pelmeni are half-moon-shaped rather than purse-shaped, and above all they are cooked in simmering water rather than steamed. In both cases, they are often served with sour cream and sometimes chili powder. Finally, oromo are also large, ring-shaped steamed ravioli stuffed with meat and vegetables. They are then cut into slices.

The Kyrgyz national dish is plov (in Russian) or paloo (in Kyrgyz). This rice pilaf - cooked by absorption - can be garnished with countless vegetables, dried fruits, meats and aromatic herbs. The most common version in Kyrgyzstan is garnished with mutton or lamb and caramelized carrots. But it can also be served with chickpeas(plov noute), raisins(plov baïram), stuffed grape leaves(plov kovatok), quince(plov chodibek) or simply garlic(plov sarimsok piezli). Plov is available every day for lunch in bazaar canteens, while in families it is cooked for every special occasion, such as weddings and even the end of Ramadan. Large dishes are brought to the table, and the food is eaten by hand. Beshbarmak could be considered the second national dish, and is in fact the traditional meal of Kyrgyz and Kazakh nomads. Literally, it can be translated as "five fingers". It's a large dish of horsemeat (sometimes replaced by beef or mutton) and onions on a bed of wide pasta that looks a little like lasagne. As its name suggests, this dish is traditionally eaten with the fingers. It is usually served at banquets, parties or to honor a special guest.

There are also several soup specialties, some of which - based on noodles - are inspired by Chinese cuisine. The best known is laghman. It's one of the most popular dishes in the region, served on the go in every bazaar in the country. It consists of noodles, often served in a hot broth with vegetables and bits of boiled meat. Rarely are they sautéed.Ashlyam-fu , on the other hand, is a spicy cold soup generously garnished with noodles, meat and chopped vegetables. It is said to be a natural remedy for hangovers. Another popular soup is shorpa, made with potatoes, carrots and boiled mutton. Most dishes in sauce in Kyrgyzstan are accompanied by bread called lepeshka, which has a unique circular shape, flat in the middle with a thick bead around the edge.

Indeed, there are many meat specialties in Kyrgyzstan. The term chachlik means "six pieces", referring to the alternating pieces of meat and fat. There is a choice of mutton - the most common - beef or chicken. Chachliks can also be made with mutton liver, or pieces of fat from the sheep's tail - the noblest part for connoisseurs, but not always digestible for Western stomachs. Chachliks are cooked exclusively by men, and are always accompanied by raw onions in vinegar, and sometimes a good amount of dill. There's also kuurdak, a mutton-based dish sautéed with lots of onions. Closely related, jarkop is made from meat (mutton, beef or poultry), sautéed with potatoes, tomatoes and onion. Or dimlama or dymdama, a stew made with various combinations of meat, vegetables and sometimes even fruit, simmered slowly. Vegetables for dimlama may include, in addition to potatoes and onions, carrots, cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, all flavored with garlic, aromatic herbs and various spices. Dimlama is usually cooked in spring and summer, when there's a wide choice of vegetables. It is served on a large plate and eaten with a spoon. Fruit and vegetables are mass-produced in the Ferghana Valley and flood bazaars throughout the country. Raw vegetables are limited to the usual cucumber and tomato salad, garnished with a large dose of coriander and onions. Fruit is rare in Kyrgyzstan and is mostly imported from Uzbekistan (watermelons, melons, dried apricots) or Xinjiang in China (grapes in particular).

But Kyrgyz cuisine is not without a few gastronomic curiosities. One example is kourout. These little balls of dry cheese are made from curdled milk. They come in different sizes. The taste is quite strong and guarantees corrosive breath for a few days, but the Kyrgyz are crazy about them and some even consider them their greatest invention (the Uzbeks also claim to have invented kouruts, but it would seem that the durable, easily transportable nature of this product is more in keeping with a nomadic lifestyle than a sedentary one).

If you're offered a sheep's eye, don't turn it down. It's an honor and a mark of great esteem. It will be cut into small pieces, but we recommend that you swallow it as it is, without chewing, and let your gastric juices take care of themselves. In Kyrgyzstan, it's always theaksakal, the most respected old man in the family, who distributes the different parts of the mutton to the guests according to the personalities present around the meal. The less intelligent eat the brains, the one with stomach problems the intestines. The eye is said to provide a view of the world, and is usually reserved for the distracted or the VIP guests!

We also find the kurdyuk, which designates both a breed of sheep and the mass of fat that surrounds the tail of these very special sheep. This lump of fat enables them to survive severe droughts, just like the humps of dromedaries. But kurdyuk is also a delicacy, and while sheep tail fat is generally used as cooking fat, it is sometimes served raw as an appetizer.

Among the local drinks served with all these specialties are several fermented beverages directly descended from the nomadic lifestyle of the early Kyrgyz. Kumiss is made in spring and summer, and consumed all year round. It is an alcohol made from fermented mare's milk. Kumiss is made by beating the milk poured into a sheepskin skinskin just after milking. This drink is supposed to have medicinal virtues. In any case, it is formidable for most Western stomachs. Bozo is also very popular. This time, millet grains are pounded and fermented, giving the drink a light beer-like taste and a slight alcohol content. Like kumiss, it is generally made at home and circulated in plastic bottles salvaged from left and right. The thirst-quenching bozo is particularly popular in summer.

Russian beer such as Baltika (3, 5, 7 or 9 depending on alcohol content) is very popular in Kyrgyzstan. But the country also has its own brands, the most popular of which is Sibirskaya. A very mild blond beer, it can be found in bottles in all the country's supermarkets and on draught in the bars of Bishkek or Karakol. Vodka, brought by the Russians throughout the colonial period, has remained firmly anchored in Kyrgyz customs. At banquets, birthdays and weddings, it flows freely with fevered toasts. In Kyrgyzstan, it can still be found in the form of "pods", plastic glasses sealed with an aluminium lid. The quality is often poor, and overuse can wreak havoc on your health. Buy Russian brands instead.

Tea is the essential beverage for every meal and every hospitality event. It's sipped at any moment, but surrounded by an unshakeable ceremonial. The teapot is always picked up and the cups offered with the right hand, sometimes with the left hand over the heart. Before being drunk, the tea is poured three times into a cup or mug, and poured back into the teapot. Cups are never filled to the brim, as this would be a sign that it's time for the guest to leave. In Kyrgyzstan, most people drink green tea, although some minorities like the Russians and Kazakhs prefer black tea, usually with a little milk.

Although tea is drunk all day long, it is also used to enjoy desserts. There are very few sweets in Kyrgyzstan. The drink is often sipped with a few dried fruits, notably apricots, which are very popular in the country. However, there is the çäkçäk, made from small pieces of fried dough, which are mixed with honey caramel before being cut into cubes. The simpler boortsog are diamond-shaped doughnuts served with jam or honey.

Tea in Kyrgyzstan is generally drunk in chaikhana (from çay/tea pronounced "chai"). These places, inseparable from tea culture in Central Asia, are usually associated with bazaars. The word chaikhana means tea house or tea room. The tea ceremony occupies an important place in the daily lives of Eastern peoples. Tea is consumed here, of course, but like cafés in Europe, the chaikhana in Kyrgyzstan is also a place to relax and socialize. In these astonishing places, richly decorated with embroidered fabrics, multicolored cushions and wood panelling - for the most opulent - the peaceful atmosphere is interspersed with the chatter of customers and the discreet chirping of quail, the birds sometimes used for bird fights, whose cages can often be seen under the pergolas of vines or in orchards. These establishments often have a small garden or planted courtyard for shade in summer, when temperatures in the region can be fierce.

For centuries, when newspapers didn't yet exist, the shaikhana became the place where men came to get the day's news, meet each other, discuss their plans, talk business, celebrate an event and so on. Indeed, traditionally, in chaikhanas, only men met; access to women was strictly forbidden. Women were allowed into the gap, where they could gather around a cup of tea and chat to their heart's content.

The construction of chaikhanas in Central Asia probably began with the advent of tea, caravanserais and bazaars. The accounts of travelers crossing Central Asia at the end of the ^19th century, marked by the craze for orientalism, describe these tea houses located on every street corner, in caravanserais, along the roads linking towns and villages, and of course in bazaars. Musicians would perform in the most prestigious establishments, playing traditional instruments (rubab, dutar, chang).

As in Russia and the rest of Central Asia, the samovar is at the heart of the shaikhana. This double kettle contains a main vessel where water is heated, crowned by a teapot where the concentrated tea infuses. Customers then help themselves to tea, which they dilute with water to their liking, before sitting down comfortably on a topchan, a kind of large wooden bed, where they can lie down to sip their tea, and even eat. It is normally compulsory to remove one's shoes when entering a chaikhana. The floor was traditionally made of clay, covered with felt, and it's not uncommon to sit cross-legged on thick mattresses called kourpatcha, which surround a large tablecloth (called dastarkhan in Kyrgyzstan), used as a table for a wide variety of sweet and savoury dishes.