Food

Food in Kyrgyzstan is very basic, but in my opinion very good. You will certainly not confuse it with French delicacies and it is far from the experimentalist Americans. The diet changes with the seasons, much like other countries that do not have regular market access to different fruits and vegetables throughout the year. The staple ingredients are not foreign at all: bread, potatoes, meat, carrots, cabbage, and rice. Most Americans eat at least one of these with every meal. In the summer, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, watermelon, apricots, and corn are all common. The only two truly new things I have eaten to this point are sheep’s meat and a certain cone-shaped melon that I have never seen in the States. They both are delicious.
The staple dishes are simple and few, but I have enjoyed most of them quite a bit. I am rare in that I have yet to completely say “No” to a meal. Either my mom is a great cook (which my fellow trainees agree on) or I just don’t turn down food (which, I’m sure, my fellow trainees would also agree on). Besh Barmak is the national dish of Kyrgyzstan. Sheep’s meat is cooked in an onion broth for several hours and then placed on top of, for lack of a better term, spaghetti noodles. In olden times, it was eaten with the hand (besh means five, barmak, thumbs) but today is eaten with a fork. Sometimes a cook is judged solely on her ability to make besh barmak.
Plov, probably my favorite, is rice fried with carrots and meat. Lagman is a spicy mixture of vegetables and meat put on top of noodles. Pelman are very similar to Korean “potstickers” and can be served in either soup or individual form. Manti are like pelman, but stuffed with potato and green onions. Borsch is an old Russian soup containing potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and meat. Shorpo is essentially the same, but no cabbage and a different broth. Fried potatoes are common when time is running short. It is like the tuna noodle casserole of Kyrgyzstan.
Bread and hot tea are served with every meal. Tea is served up by the woman of the house (more discussion on that later). It is still strange for me to hand my empty glass to my mother and have it filled up and handed back. Tea is the cure for everything here. Colds and stomachaches. It makes me think about that Chris Rock bit about his father and Robitussin. Bread is very holy here. It should always be the first thing you take a bite of and you should save every piece that isn’t eaten.
Lunch and dinner do not vary much. We can have any dish either time. Breakfast often consists of just bread and coffee. My mother and I have come to this understanding that all I need is bread in the morning. I feel she does so much that I don’t want her to make an extra meal for me, since everyone else eats breakfast much later than I. When we all eat together for breakfast, fried potatoes that the have an egg broken over them is one of my favorites. How did I never think about that in college! Fried eggs are also common, along with fruit.
That is it for food. I do wish it was a little spicier, but it is fine for now. I’ve heard in the winter it can become quite bland because all they have is meat and potatoes. Somehow I think my years of Midwestern service will help out there. Food is very important to the culture here. Eating and the etiquette surrounding it I very important. I seem to fit right in.