Local Dishes

1. Бешбармак

   Beshbarmak

   Beshbarmak (chopped meat over flat noodles)

   Usage

   The highest-status hospitality dish. Boiled meat is chopped fine, laid over kesme flat noodles cooked in the same broth, and dressed with chyk — onion in fatty broth. Chopping the meat fine is a mark of respect for elders. Formally, ustukan (jointed bone-in cuts) is passed round before the beshbarmak

2. Куурдак

   Kuurdak

   Kuurdak (meat fried in its own fat)

   Usage

   It is simply meat fried in fat — mutton, beef, sometimes horse, cooked down with onion. It is what a household can put on the table quickly for a guest, and often precedes beshbarmak. The version made without onion is kara kuurdak

3. Шорпо

   Shorpo

   Shorpo (meat and vegetable broth)

   Usage

   The broth drawn from boiled meat. Shorpo is identical with sorpo; menus normally use the shorpo spelling. It usually arrives with potato, carrot and onion in the bowl

4. Лагман

   Lagman

   Lagman (hand-pulled noodles with meat and vegetables)

   Usage

   Hand-pulled noodles served with stir-fried meat and vegetables. It is a Dungan dish; in Kyrgyzstan it is the signature item of Uyghur and Dungan eateries. It comes both in soup form and stir-fried with the broth drained off (kuurma lagman)

5. Ашлямфу

   Ashlyamfu

   Ashlyamfu (cold noodles with starch jelly)

   Usage

   It is cold noodles combined with a wobbly jelly set from bean or potato starch. It is served cold — worth knowing if you were expecting something hot — and most places serve it sour and spicy

6. Манты

   Manty

   Manty (steamed meat dumplings)

   Usage

   Large dumplings of chopped meat, steamed. Both mantuu and manty are used as spellings; menus normally write manty. Some places also offer a pumpkin filling (ashkabak manty)

7. Оромо

   Oromo

   Oromo (rolled steamed dough with filling)

   Usage

   Thin dough spread with chopped meat or vegetables — potato, pumpkin — rolled up and steamed in a manty kazan, then cut into slices, so it looks nothing like manty. Note that the same spelling also has another meaning: a horse's back-cloth

8. Палоо

   Paloo

   Paloo (Kyrgyz pilaf)

   Usage

   It is rice steamed with meat, fat, carrot, onion and spices. It is the Kyrgyz form of the Central Asian pilaf; the Kyrgyz spelling is paloo, while plov is the Russian form. A standard dish at celebrations

9. Самса

   Samsa

   Samsa (tandoor-baked meat pastry)

   Usage

   It is dough filled with meat and onion and baked in a tandyr oven. At bazaars it is sold in batches as each firing comes out of the oven, and it travels well as street food

10. Каттама

    Kattama

    Kattama (layered pan bread)

    Usage

    It is dough rolled thin, brushed with kaymak or clarified butter, folded into many layers and baked. It appears at breakfast and with tea. The kat- in the name means to layer

11. Боорсок

    Boorsok

    Boorsok (fried dough pieces)

    Usage

    Squares of leavened dough fried in oil — the everyday Kyrgyz bread. A heaped plate of it sits on any dastorkon spread, at weddings, funerals and festivals alike. Take pieces by hand and eat them with tea

12. Тандыр нан

    Tandyr nan

    Tandyr nan (tandoor-baked round bread)

    Usage

    Round bread slapped onto the inner wall of a clay tandyr oven. It is eaten with tea and served alongside paloo or shorpo. At bazaars you buy it fresh, one loaf at a time

13. Кесме

    Kesme

    Kesme (hand-cut flat noodles)

    Usage

    It is both dough rolled thin and cut into strips and the dish made from it. It is served as a noodle soup in its own right and is also the base under beshbarmak

14. Чучук

    Chuchuk

    Chuchuk (horse sausage)

    Usage

    Horse kazy — the belly and rib fat — seasoned with salt, pepper and onion, packed into horse intestine and boiled. It is served in cold slices. Note that chuchuk can also mean "thick intestine". It is a celebratory horse-meat dish, so say so in advance if you do not eat horse

15. Казы

    Kazy

    Kazy (horse belly and rib fat)

    Usage

    The fat running from the belly to the ribs of a well-fed horse. Packed into intestine it becomes chuchuk, and kazy itself is also the name of that sausage. It counts as the finest cut for a guest. Note the unrelated homonym, a judge under sharia law — not a food

16. Курут

    Kurut

    Kurut (dried salted cheese balls)

    Usage

    Suzmo rolled into balls by hand, salted and dried in the sun. It is rock hard and intensely sour and salty. Bags of it are sold at bazaars and at mountain passes. You gnaw it as it is, or break it into hot broth to dissolve

17. Сүзмө

    Süzmö

    Süzmö (strained sour milk)

    Usage

    Ayran hung in a cloth bag until the whey drains off, leaving a thick sour curd. It is eaten as it is and is the starting point for kurut and chalap. Note the unrelated other meaning of süzmö: flat metal ornaments on horse harness

18. Быжы

    Byjy

    Byjy (liver and rice sausage)

    Usage

    Sheep's liver mashed with chopped onion and cooked rice, packed into cleaned intestine or caul and cooked through, then served in slices. It is an offal dish — ask before ordering if that is not for you

19. Жөргөм

    Jörgöm

    Jörgöm (braided offal)

    Usage

    Sheep's lung and stomach cut into strips and braided together with the intestine, then boiled. The name goes back to the Old Turkic verb yörgä-, to wrap. It is cut up and served to guests

20. Олобо

    Olobo

    Olobo (sheep's lung filled with milk)

    Usage

    It is the lung of a sheep or goat, cleaned, filled with milk and butter and boiled in water. It is soft and mild, and appears at family feasts

21. Дымдама

    Dymdama

    Dymdama (meat and vegetables braised in layers)

    Usage

    Meat or fish layered in a pot with vegetables and braised with the moisture sealed in — both the method and the dish, from dym-, to steam. Note the dialect sense DYMDAMA I: a shed for sulphur-smoking apricots

22. Шишкебек

    Shishkebek

    Shishkebek (grilled meat skewers)

    Usage

    Meat threaded on a skewer and grilled over coals. The Russian form shashlyk names the same thing and is what most signboards show. Mutton, beef and chicken are usual, and liver (boor) skewers are common too

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