A big thank you to all my followers who played the “what is this” game with me on my facebook page these past 3 weeks. And congratulations to Veronique who is the winner of this Kyrgyz game session.
Central Asia is really different from Europe…
REALLY different… but it’s exactly the reason why we want to go there.
“Trop” in Kyrgyz, “Retka” in Russian and this is a green radish. And I’ve tried it and it indeed tastes like radish, a bit spicy but less spicy than the classical red one we used to find in our gardens.
“Kurut”: Small pieces of cheese. Goat cheese or cow cheese, don’t follow the shapes or the smell, just ask by trying this :”Salam, is this “moo” or “Baa”?” (Yes, you’ll be ridiculous but it works perfectly)
“Funchoza” or noodles made with starch, commonly used in the lagman preparation (this, also being a curiosity by itself ).
See:
“Chuchuk”, a bit like what we call “Saucisson” but with the fat and the meat less mixed together.
“Makcbim” (in Russian and in cyrillique) is the national beverage made with fermented corn. It’s strange for a European mouth but it’s pretty good in the end.
Sugar rocks that you can break and use in your tea or coffee. Beautiful isn’t it?
Apple that looks like leather… Kids eat it as if it was a candy, remember? ==>
And this is the last curiosity, “Kymyz”, which is another national drink: Horse fermented milk.