Kazakhstan

Beshbarmak

Boiled horse or lamb over wide noodle sheets, served on one platter and eaten by hand.

Kazy

Horse meat sausage from the rib, boiled and sliced into rounds for guests.

Kuyrdak

Liver, heart and lung fried with onion and fat, made the day an animal is slaughtered.

Sorpa

The rich meat broth from beshbarmak, drunk from bowls at the end of the meal.

Manty

Large steamed dumplings of minced lamb and pumpkin, eaten with sour cream.

Lagman

Hand-pulled noodles with mutton, peppers and tomato, Uyghur in origin.

Samsa

Meat pastries baked against the wall of a tandyr until the base blackens.

Baursak

Fried dough pieces piled on the table at every celebration, eaten with tea.

Zhaya

Salted and smoked horse rump, sliced thin as a cold starter.

Irimshik

Curd cooked down until golden and sweet, kept dry and eaten with tea.

Kurt

Salty dried yoghurt balls, hard as stone, carried on the steppe for months.

Tandyr nan

Round flatbread stamped in the centre and baked against a clay oven wall.

Kumys

Fermented mare's milk, tart and faintly fizzy, drunk fresh in summer.

Shubat

Fermented camel milk, thicker than kumys and drunk as a tonic.

Chak-chak

Fried dough strands bound with honey into a mound and cut with a knife.