Bishbarmak (Day 4)

The Joneses arranged to have bishbarmak while we were in Sharbakti with them. Two of their Kazakh friends would teach us how to prepare the food as part of our Kazakh dinner. On Wednesday we met up with Sultanat to do the shopping for the meal on Thursday (Day 4).

First stop while shopping was for meat, so we went to small meat shop in the center of the village. The meat we wanted wouldn't fit in the pot Heather had, it was simply too big. So Sultanat and Chris told the merchant and he took the meat and put it on a surface lower than his waist, grabbed an ax, raised the ax high above his head and *wham*. He divided the beef loin by chopping it apart! What a sight!

I also saw a type of scale I'd never seen before:

Some of the yummy food we made included these "rainbow" salads:

This is the table (before setting it large enough to fit our whole party):

We were all ready to eat when the time came, just ask Desi:

Bishbarmak, the Kazakh national dish, is a combination of homemade noodles, meat, and onions. The traditional meat for this dish is horse, but we used beef. Bishbarmak means five fingers in Kazakh because this dish is traditionally eaten with your hands.

Chris and Addie!
Our Kazakh dinner was followed by a performance of a Kazakh instrument, the dumbra, by Aika:

Just a small sample from our personal "concert":

Chris had a turn too (and did pretty well):

Heather and Sultanat:
The women behind the wonderful meal, Aika, Heather, and Sultanat:

With my new friends!
Our amazing hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Jones: