Aktobe, Kazakhstan

While visiting St. Petersburg, Russia, I took the opportunity to apply and receive a visa for the nearby neighboring country of Kazakhstan. The next stop on my list would be the north-west capital city of the Aktyubinsk province, Aktobe. I will take this opportunity to write about my experiences in Aktobe and will divide these with three individual post pertaining to the following subjects:  Food, Parks and Sites, and Overall Impressions. I hope you enjoy!

"Mega" mall and a church near Nazarbayev Park, Aktobe, KZ

Food:

Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country by area in the world and the largest landlocked country. The population is just under 16.5 million people and continues to rise. The capital city was moved from Almaty to Astana in 1997. The Kazakh race is of Asian descent, with many similarities to Mongolians. Contrary to what the previous fact would lead one to believe, the Kazakh language is of Turkic descent. I encourage anyone reading this to take a brief moment to do some online research about the Kazakh people and their country. The Wikipedia entries for Kazakhstan and Aktobe have quite a bit of interesting information. I won't take a lot of time to educate any reader beyond this point, as I would prefer to turn my attention to my experiences within the city of Aktobe.

I had the privilege to be invited to several meals throughout my 5 day stay in Aktobe. I was treated to wonderful hospitality along with more food than I could have possibly eaten. The Kazakh diet revolves around meat and potatoes, with the most popular meat coming from horse. Having had a rough experience with the first time I tasted the animal, I thought I would give it a go again but unlike the first time, the meat would be cooked. The traditional meal, aptly named "5-fingers" because it was historically, but not always, eaten without utensils, featured small medallions of tender horse meat accompanied with potatoes and flat noodles; a truly excellent dish! Small medallions of horse meat are included in several other dishes, but a complete different food made with horse would be Kazy, aka horse sausage. This variation on traditional pork sausage is quite tasty, with a meatier flavor and strong salty flare. I would definitely recommend everyone to try both of these dishes if ever presented the opportunity.

5-fingers - horse meat dish

Kazy - horse meat sausage

If you can't handle the idea of eating horse meat, you probably shouldn't try another traditional food which I experienced: the head of a sheep. As an honorary guest of the house, I was served the symbolic head of an animal. Per tradition, a cow head can also be served, but that tends to be given to a larger group of guests. The parts of the head which were given to me to eat included the brain, ear and eyeball. To any inquisitive reader, eyeballs don't "pop" when bitten into. As any guest should, I tried each and every item presented to me. Surprisingly, the ear was the hardest to eat as it is 99% fat and gristle which makes it get stuck in your teeth and very difficult to chew. The eyeball was the most disturbing to eat, but was actually quite tasty and "normal" in texture. The brain was softer than most meat, but my mind was distracted by the disturbing fact that I had just eaten a sheep's eyeball, so it went down without a problem. To wash it down, I was served glasses Shubat and Kymyz (sour camel's milk with raisins and sour horse milk, respectively) to coat the stomach to help it expand and to prevent any future bowel problems.

The head of a sheep

The amount of food which was presented to me was incredible. Often times, I would eat what I was assuming to be the main course just to find out that they were planning on bring out more and more food. The following picture best describes the time spent to prepare all of the dishes. I have to give my respects to the Zhantikenova family for their hard work and I certainly appreciate the hospitality. The food was always delicious and I am grateful for the opportunity to try many different traditional meals and dishes. Almost everything was prepared fresh by the family and almost nothing was store purchased. The following picture shows how much effort was given to make my time there special (look close to find the plate on the right which is dirty and the plate at the bottom of the table which is really two stacked plates, one from the first course and a clean plate for the second these untouched dishes).

A full table of food...after the first course

Next stop on the blog spot: Parks and Sites (see next post)