![Beshbarmak1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Beshbarmak1.jpg)
Kyrgyz cuisine is the cuisine of the
Kyrgyz, who comprise a majority of the population of
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...
. The cuisine is similar in many aspects to that of their neighbors.
Traditional Kyrgyz food revolves around
mutton
Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries''. A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Gen ...
,
beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus'').
In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity ...
and
horse meat
Horse meat forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many countries, particularly in Eurasia. The eight countries that consume the most horse meat consume about 4.3 million horses a year. For the majority of humanity's early existen ...
, as well as various
dairy product
Dairy products or milk products, also known as lacticinia, are food products made from (or containing) milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, nanny goat, and ewe. Dairy products include common grocery store food items in th ...
s. The preparation techniques and major ingredients have been strongly influenced by the nation's historically nomadic way of life. Thus, many cooking techniques are conducive to the long-term preservation of food. Mutton and beef are the favorite meats, although in modern times many Kyrgyz are unable to afford them regularly.
Kyrgyzstan is home to many different nationalities and their various cuisines. In larger cities, such as
Bishkek
Bishkek ( ky, Бишкек), ), formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is also the administrative centre of the Chüy Region. The region surrounds the city, although the city itself is not part of ...
,
Osh
Osh (Kyrgyz: Ош, romanised Osh; uz, O‘sh/Ўш) is the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". It is the oldest city in the country (e ...
,
Jalal-Abad, and
Karakol
Karakol ( ky, Каракол, Karakol, قاراقول, ; zh, 卡拉科尔), formerly Przhevalsk (russian: Пржевальск), is the fourth-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, near the eastern tip of Lake Issyk-Kul, about from the Kyrgyzstan–C ...
, various national and international cuisines can be found. Non-Kyrgyz cuisines that are particularly common and popular in Kyrgyzstan include
Uyghur,
Dungan Dungan may refer to:
* Donegan, an Irish surname, sometimes spelled Dungan
* Dungan people, a group of Muslim people of Hui origin
** Dungan language
** Dungan, sometimes used to refer to Hui Chinese people generally
* Dungan Mountains in Sibi Dist ...
,
Uzbek, and
Turkish cuisines, representing the largest minorities in the country.
Meat dishes
Meat in various forms has always been an essential part of Kyrgyz cuisine. Among the most popular meat dishes are horse-meat sausages (
kazy or
chuchuk), roasted sheep's liver,
beshbarmak
Beshbarmak ( Kazakh – бесбармак, ky, бешбармак, 'five finger') is a dish from Central Asian cuisine. It is also known as naryn in Xinjiang, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, as ''turama'' or ''dograma'' in Karakalpaksta ...
(a dish containing boiled and shredded meat with thin noodles), and various other delicacies made from horse meat.
Beshbarmak
Beshbarmak ( Kazakh – бесбармак, ky, бешбармак, 'five finger') is a dish from Central Asian cuisine. It is also known as naryn in Xinjiang, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, as ''turama'' or ''dograma'' in Karakalpaksta ...
Beshbarmak is the Kyrgyz national dish, although it is also common in
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
and in
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
(where it is called ''narin''). It consists of horse meat (or mutton/beef) boiled in its own broth for several hours and served over homemade noodles sprinkled with parsley. ''Beshbarmak'' means "Five Fingers" in the
Kyrgyz language
Kyrgyz (; autonym: , tr. ''Kyrgyz tili'', ) is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia. Kyrgyz is the official language of Kyrgyzstan and a significant minority language in the Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in X ...
, and is so called probably because the dish is typically eaten with the hands. Beshbarmak is most often made during a feast to celebrate the birth of a new child, an important birthday, or to mourn a death in the family, either at a funeral or on an anniversary. If mutton is used instead of horse meat, a boiled sheep's head is placed on the table in front of the most honored guest, who cuts bits and parts from the head and offers them around to the other guests at the table.
Dimlama
Dimlama or dymdama (russian: Дымдама, ''dymdama'') is a Turkic and Uzbek (or-more broadly-Central Asian) stew made with various combinations of meat, potatoes, onions, vegetables, and sometimes fruits. Meat (lamb or sometimes veal or bee ...
Dimlama is a stew consisting of meat, potatoes, onions, vegetables and sometimes fruits.
Kuurdak
Kuurdak ( ky, куурдак, kk, қуырдақ, Qýyrdaq, tk, gowurdak; Говурдак, , uz, qovurdoq, mn, Хуурдаг), transliterated with various spellings, is a traditional meat dish made in Central Asia. The name comes from a no ...
Kuurdak is one of the main meat dishes.
Shashlik
Skewered chunks of mutton grilled over smoking
coals that come with raw sliced onions, is served in restaurants and often sold on the street. The meat is usually marinated for hours before cooking. Shashlyk can also be made from beef, chicken, and fish. Each shashlik typically has a fat-to-meat ratio of one-to-one.
Shorpo
Chorba or shorba (from dialectal Arabic ; from , 'to drink') is a broad class of stews or rich soups found in national cuisines across the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It is often prepared ...
Shorpo (or ''sorpo'') is a meat soup.
Laghman
Laghman is a dish consisting of meat, vegetables and pulled noodles.
Paloo
![Paloo cooking in a Kazan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Paloo_cooking_in_a_Kazan.jpg)
''Paloo'' ( ky, палоо or күрүч/аш) is the Kyrgyz version of what is generally referred to as
plov
Pilaf ( US spelling) or pilau ( UK spelling) is a rice dish, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some techni ...
in
Central Asian cuisine
Central Asian cuisine has been influenced by Persian, Indian, Arab, Turkish, Chinese, Mongol, African, and Russian cultures, as well as the culinary traditions of other varied nomadic and sedentary civilizations. Contributing to the culinary d ...
. It consists of pieces of meat (generally mutton or beef, but sometimes chicken) fried in a large
qazan (a cast-iron cauldron) and mixed with fried shredded carrots, ''
jiucai''(garlic chives) and cooked rice. The dish is garnished with whole fried garlic cloves and hot red peppers. ''Uzgen paloo'' is made with locally grown rice from the southern
Uzgen District of Kyrgyzstan. ''Shirin paloo'', a close relative of
shirin plov in Azerbaijani cuisine, is a vegetarian dish in which meat is replaced with dried fruits, such as prunes, apricots, and raisins.
Paloo is the Kyrgyzified form of the Persian word ''polow'' or ''polo'', related in etymology to pilaf. In Russian the dish is called ''plov'' (russian: плов), in Turkish ''pilav'', in
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...
''ash'', and in
Tajik ''osh''.
Noodles and dumplings
''
Manty'' are steamed dumplings filled with ground meat and onions.
''
Samsa'' are little pockets with meat and vegetables wrapped in flaky pastry or bread, very similar to Indian samosas. They are most often stuffed with mutton and fat, but are also made with chicken, cheese, cabbage, beef, and even pumpkin. They can be bought in most bazaars or on street corners in larger cities.
''
Lagman'' (or ''laghman'') is a very popular noodle dish. It consists of thick noodles created by stretching a very simple flour dough, then covered in chopped peppers and other vegetables and served in a spicy vinegary sauce. Lagman is served everywhere in Kyrgyzstan, but is considered a
Dungan Dungan may refer to:
* Donegan, an Irish surname, sometimes spelled Dungan
* Dungan people, a group of Muslim people of Hui origin
** Dungan language
** Dungan, sometimes used to refer to Hui Chinese people generally
* Dungan Mountains in Sibi Dist ...
or
Uyghur dish.
Bread and tea
![E7870-dordoy-laghman-crop-768](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/E7870-dordoy-laghman-crop-768.jpg)
Common types of bread ( ky, нан []) available in Kyrgyzstan include Central Asian flat bread (Tandyr nan, nan), and thick, sturdy
Turkish breads. Central Asian flat bread is cooked over coals in
tandoor
A tandoor ( or ) is a large urn-shaped oven, usually made of clay, originating from the Indian Subcontinent. Since antiquity, tandoors have been used to bake unleavened flatbreads, such as roti and naan, as well as to roast meat. The tandoo ...
i ( ky, тандыр []) ovens, and is round and relatively flat.
More traditional bread products include qattama and boorsoq, two types of fried bread.
The Kyrgyz often eat various breads by dipping it in jam, [
aymak, butter (or ''
sary may''), etc. Boorsoq is sometimes eaten suspended in tea, or dipped in honey.
Bread is valued as sacred in Kyrgyz culture, and a good host always offers a guest bread at the very least (often with tea), even if the guest is only staying for a few moments.
Beverages
![Mare milking Suusamyr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Mare_milking_Suusamyr.jpg)
A popular Kyrgyz beverage is
kymyz
''Kumis'' (also spelled ''kumiss'' or ''koumiss'' or ''kumys'', see other transliterations and cognate words below under terminology and etymology – otk, airag kk, қымыз, ''qymyz'') mn, айраг, ''ääryg'') is a fermented dairy p ...
( ky, кымыз ), a slightly alcoholic drink made by fermenting
mare
A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four ...
's milk. This drink is considered to be the signature drink of Euroasian nomadic culture, as it is also consumed in Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Fresh kymyz is only available in the summer, from about May until August, when it can commonly be purchased by the roadside in mountainous areas. Bottled kymyz is also available year-round in most food shops in the country.
There are many beverages that could be described as traditional Kyrgyz drinks. One such popular non-alcoholic beverage, especially in the summer, is
maksym, a slightly fizzy drink made by fermenting grains. Maksym was traditionally made in small quantities by women for family consumption; however, this drink was introduced as a commercial product in Bishkek by the company '
Shoro', after which it became widely available all over Kyrgyzstan. Maksym is usually made from malt, but other types of grains may be used in its preparation. There are different methods and recipes for it that vary by region. It is prepared by boiling grounded malt or other type of cereals in water. After reaching a certain state of readiness this substance is cooled and undergoes a fermentation process caused by yeast. Maksym is usually consumed chilled.
Jarma is a similar drink derived from ground cereals. It is made in almost the same way as ''maksym'', except that it isn't fermented, instead it is mixed with
ayran
Ayran, doogh, dhallë, daw, xynogala or tan is a cold savory yogurt-based beverage popular across Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeastern Europe, North Asia and Eastern Europe. The principal ingredients are yogurt, water and sa ...
to make it slightly fizzy.
Another fizzy drink made from ayran is
chalap
Chalap or shalap or chalob ( ky, чалап, ; uz, chalob, ; kk, шалап, translit=shalap, ), also marketed as Tan ( ky, Тан, ) by Enesay ( ky, Энесай), is a beverage common to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. It consists of qatiq or su ...
(sometimes marketed as Tan). Other traditional drinks are sheep's milk and its products (such as
qurut
Kashk ( fa, کشک ''Kašk'', ku, keşk), qurut ( Tuvan and ky, курут, kk, құрт, tk, gurt, uz, qurt, az, qurut, ps, قروت, hy, չորթան-''chortan'', Turkish: ''kurut'') or aaruul and khuruud ( Mongolian: ''ааруул' ...
) and camel's milk. The two primary companies that commercially produce Kyrgyz national drinks are
Shoro and
Enesay.
Bozo
Bozo or bozo may refer to:
People
*Bozo people, a fishing people of the central Niger delta in Mali
** Bozo language, languages of the Bozo people
* Frédéric Bozo, history Professor at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle
* Bozo Mille ...
is a slightly alcoholic drink prepared from wheat.
References
External links
Kyrgyz national cuisine
{{Authority control
Cuisine
A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...
Central Asian cuisine
Cuisine by ethnicity