FOOD

Some people have asked me about food. I will say that obviously food in Kazakhstan is very different from food in America, but at the same time some things are still similar. I would like everyone to keep in mind that while these foods may seem strange to an American, they are not really that different then foods many other cultures eat.

One of the things they warned us about in training was to watch out to not overeat. This is very important because my family and the other families of the trainees are constantly telling us to ku-shai, ku-shai! Eat, Eat! Every meal has includes tons of food and I have been encouraged to basically stuff myself into a food coma. This is a display of hospitality and the way the family shows that they care about me. Luckily for me I have loved everything I have been given and am very adventurous when it comes to food, so I have been happy to ku-shai. I have also been lucky that my stomach has liked most of the food I have eaten so far. My family also seems to want me to eat more often than I do in the US. My family often eats breakfast, lunch, dinner, and another late dinner. Often I haven’t been hungry for some of these and eat little. My family likes to laugh and ask me if I’m on a diet, but they seem concerned. I assume its just because they expect a regular guest to eat the regular 4-5 meals a day.

MEAT
The main part of Kazakhstani dishes is meat. Lots and lots of meat. They don’t really have vegetarians here. The meat they serve includes sheep, horse, beef, chicken, pork, and fish. The meat is always the biggest part of the dish. There may be vegetables and other things involved, but there is always lots of meat. You might say, yeah but in America meat is our main course. But believe me the amount of meat eaten here is not at all like the amount we eat in America. Almost every dish and meal involves some sort of meat and in large quantities. I have never been a big meat eater in the USA. But I have been trying to eat everything that is offered here and I am starting to like the taste of meat again (Mom and Dad you would be proud).

Besides meat, Kazakhstanians eat a lot of vegetables, noodles, and milk products. Since it is the end of the summer I have also seen large amounts of vegetables from my host family’s garden and the market. My family is also beginning to can their vegetables for the winter. The most popular vegetables are potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, onions, and peppers. They often make salads out of veggies like tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers with a sour creamish sauce mixed with dill. Dill and basil are also the spices I have seen most often. Noodles are pretty much like in the US, but the amount of milk products used is much more than I am use to. They put sour cream in some soups, on salads, etc. My mother also uses mayonnaise pretty often. I also eat a lot of cheese, sausage, and bread.

BREAD
Bread is a huge part of Kazak culture. Bread is somewhat special, I wouldn’t say sacred, but you never throw it away. They let the bread go until it becomes pretty stale and sometimes make croutons or give it to the dog for his dinner. There is always bread with every single meal (and my family thinks its weird I don’t constantly want bread). This includes what we see in America, the loaf of white bread, along with the Kazak bread that is a flattish bread that kind of resembles pizza crust. This is my favorite. My host mother brought home some the other day with onions mixed in the dough, mmmmmmm! Usually the different kinds of bread are eaten with butter, jam, sausage, or cheese. I like to dunk mine in my soup or the sauce from the meal.

KAZAK FOODS VS. RUSSIAN FOODS
My host mother, Vera and occasionally my host father, Valera, have prepared the foods I have eaten so far. They are both amazing cooks and make a variety of different dishes. Although most of the trainees in my town are in Kazak families, my family is Russian. So the dishes we eat may be somewhat different from those eaten by Kazak families. Examples of traditional Kazak food include Beshbarmak (large dish of noodles in onion broth piled with literally mountains of meat), Horsemeat (pretty self explanatory), Shuzhuk (horsemeat sausage), Kuyrdak (all the parts of a sheep), Sheep Head (for honored guests), Kumys (fermented sour horse milk), Shubat (fermented sour camel milk), Salo (Pork fat), and Holodets (Meat jello).

In my case I have eaten Borsch (beet root soup), Stuffed Peppers/Cabbage (Cabbage or Peppers stuffed with rice and meat in a tomato sauce), Ragu (vegetables and meat over noodles), Plouf (meat, onions, carrots, and tomatoes with rice), Soup (soup with meat, green leafy veggies, mixed in sour cream), Fish (carp with vegetables), and various other dishes. For lunch and breakfast I often eat cheese, sausage, and bread.

Another thing that is different about meals is that in America we often don’t eat our leftovers and only cook enough to feed the family at that single meal. In Kazakhstan it seems that everything is made in big quantities and is used for two or three meals after. It’s not abnormal to have Ragu for dinner and then Ragu for breakfast and lunch. There also aren’t really delineations between what is breakfast food and what is lunch/dinner food. Most of the time I have cheese, sausage, cookies, and bread for breakfast.

CHAI
And then of course there is chai. Chai means tea in Russian and is served with every meal. Most people drink chai with milk and sugar. I like the traditional chai a lot and probably drink roughly 4-5 cups a day. Whenever chai comes out it also means candy and cookies are placed on the table. The candy here includes chocolate and other candies called caramel (confusing because these ones are hard candies). The cookies are usually like nilla wafers and not real sweet. My favorite candy is this chocolate one called Nemo that has a fruity center.

I would like to invite anyone who has more specific questions about food to comment and ask them and I will hopefully be able to answer them.