Kyrgyz traditions associated with food and sharing food are among those that have most shaped the culture
The principal ingredients of the Kyrgyz cuisine are of dairy origin: whole sour milk "zhuurat"; sour milk "ayran"; "syzme" cottage cheese from boiled milk; small balls of pressed and dried, hardened cottage cheese "kurut", and its variant "kaynatkan kurut" and "tuzdatkan kurut"; cheese - "ish"; cottage cheese from sheep or goat milk "ezhigey"; creamy "kaymak"; butter "may"; melted butter "sary may". From horse milk, by means of fermentation, a popular drink is made "kumyz". More exclusive are products from camel and yak milk. Curd “katyktai” in all its variant adds taste and substance especially in the hard winter months. Kumyz and ayran were also used to season soups and broths such as "ak serke" and "chygyr".
The Kyrgyz have a widespread and popular kind of alcoholic drink based on fermented bread, "bozo", which is made from millet, barley, or corn. It is drunk mainly by adults and only in the winter.
Over the last two centuries, the Kyrgyz have developed a taste for tea drinking and tea is a fully adopted part of the Kyrgyz culture. Unthinkable not to offer a cup of tea to a visitor, with the Kyrgyz version being the addition of roasted flour with salt and milk for the "kuurma chay” and "ak chay".
Mutton, beef, as well as horse, camel, goat, and yak meat are staple diet and both mutton and horse meat are specifically valued. For major celebrations and national holidays, guests would expect horse meat to be served.
Meat was mostly prepared by simmering it in a “shorpo” broth, whereas fried meat - "kuurdak" was not very popular and definitely not served to guests.
The chunks of ready mutton meat are divided and distributed according to the status of the guests; the most honorable and the eldest are given the head "bash"; then would be distributed in descending order a huckle-bone "zhambash", a cannon-bone "zhoto" or "chukaluu zhilik", thigh-bone "kashka zhilik", spoke bone "kar zhilik", shoulder-blade "daly", and ribs "kabyrga". Only women are given a tailbone "kuymulchak", and young daughters-in-law were given a bone from the leg below the knee "kun zhilik".
 Vegetables were not widespread but whole grain and cereal based dishes from wheat, corn, rice, millet, and oats came in the form of various porridges with names such "kezhe", "botko", "atala", "umach", "maksym", "zharma".
Only much later did ground cereals kneaded into dough "kamyrta mak" find their way into Kyrgyz culinary, prepared similarly to the way we make pasta dishes, namely "kesme kezhe", "gulche", "zhayma ash", "kesme atala".
Different breads "tokoch" or "nan" are of the following kinds: flat round bread from sour dough "kemech"; short flaky thin round bread "kat tama", flaky round bread from unleavened dough "chabaty"; big round bread with slits in the center, fried in fat "may tokoch"; its variants "chelpek", "chozmo". Pieces of sour (or short) dough fried in animal fat or oil “boorsoki” are still held in special esteem.
The Kyrgyz maintain quite a number of customs and traditions connected with cooking and eating, that date back to high antiquity. Before meat is added to the cauldron, a spoke bone is thrown in the water "karzhilik" for good luck and blessings. During the meal, first of all, male guests sit down in groups of two, three, or four and eat the meat strictly out of their own plates. Each guest is given some chunk of mutton, "zhilikter", according to his public status or position in the family. The head is never offered to a woman. Curtesy demands that a chunk of meat is left for whose who have served the guests or for the host's children "ustukan"; and a small portion, “tuuragan et” remains at the bottom of the cauldron for the serving women. If a man does not observe these rules, his behavior is denounced in public, which could considerably harm the respect he enjoys in society.
Even though it was common to eat with ones fingers, knives are indispensable for many of the meat based dishes. If a knife was lent to another guest or a family member, it was handed over by the blade, with the handle first. When the knife went back to the host, on its spike there had to be a piece of meat, and it was to be handed in a vertical position; this custom was called - "bychak ebelgesu".
 Every religious holiday requires its own specific recipes to be prepared. To this day, to celebrate the spring/New Year festival “Norooz”, throughout the night, every community stirrs the "sumelek" in huge cauldrons, a sweetish paste of the first wheat sprouts of the season.
For every peaceful reconciliation after a conflict or upon escaping narrowly some misfortune, the Kyrgyz organize a "tuleye"; fried pastry is distributed to neighbors and friends as a gracious gesture, the "toguz tokoch".
Thus, food has always played a fundamental role in the culture of the Kyrgyz people and in many ways still shapes many aspects of every day life in the Kyrgyz republic.
by Oksana Budanova |
