Bishkek Adventures

During my stay in Bishkek I had the amazing pleasure of attending not only one but a multiple of Kyrgyzstan parties. (Thank you my lovely host family! You are the best.) Here I will describe my first party where we ate one whole sheep. And I mean the whole sheep, every single part. The parties have a certain distinguishable structure. Firstly, drinking tea and eating the first serving of salads, breads and first courses and of course a lot of conversation. The main dish is brought out later as the final culmination of the party. Then there are toasts to wish the family good things and to thank them for the party.  At the end there is operation pocket. Firstly I was amazed at the amount and variety of different types of food. Salads, chicken, bread, the traditional bread borsok, sweets, fruits.. I was actually full even before they brought in the main course; mutton Beshbarmak. With it everyone was served mutton with big bones and given a knife to carve out the meat. The na

23.2.2018 My last day in Bishkek was really warm and sunny; spring is coming to Bishkek as I am leaving back to Finland. I spent the last day with my host family and host mom taught me how to cook plof and manti. I try to describe the procedures here as well as I am able. The foods might be reproducible with these instructions or not. Recipes are surprisingly though to write. Plof 200 g oil 1 kg meat 3 onions 1 kg of carrots 2 l water 1 kg rice Heat oil in a pot and cut the meat. Add the meat to pot, low heat. Cut the onions and carrots. After meat is cooked, add onions. After a while add the carrots. After all is cooked, add the water and boil. Add the rice and boil until no water left (about 15 min). Stew under the lid with low heat for about 40 min. Manti For dough flour and warm water with salt. Mix until no flour is left in the bowl. Minced meat (mutton preferably) 1 kg Onions 500 g, cut really small. Add salt to onions and press the onions by ha

3.2.2018 Our awesome volunteer group This weekend lovely Natali from our volunteering job showed us around Tokmok and Burana tower. Tokmok was around 2 hours taxi ride away from Bishkek and Natali picked us up from Tokmok bus station. The car ride from Tokmok to Burana was only around 20 min even with some cow and sheep -inclusive traffic jams on the way.  We also stopped for some horse and lanscape photography on the way. Burana tower is a remnant of an ancient city Balasagun build around year 900 and destroyed by an earthquake in 15th century. Burana tower was a minaret and a watch tower. Before the earthquake it was 45 m high but afterwards only 25 meters. The tower was restored in 1970s. We took the narrow and dark staircase all the way to the top of Burana Tower. I am not too fond of narrow places but managed to make it almost without panic noises. The tower has of course its own legends in many versions. A long time ago the daughter of a local leade