Fil & Mary Kaza: Supper at Owner's Home!!!!!

May 23, 2010

Today all 3 Canadian families and our coordinators Vera and Mediet were invited for a traditional Kazak supper by the owners of the apartment we are living in. Walli, Annara, their children Laoura and Islam and their housekeeper treated us all like royalty and we were really touched and honoured. Their house is just next door to our apartment and it was really nice to be a skip and a hop away. Their tradition is they must assign you a seat at the dinner table.
Kazakhs' most popular dish has always been the national meat dish 'beshkarmak' (five fingers because of the manner in which it is eaten). It is made of large chunks of boiled meat which the host cuts and serves to each guest according to their importance: the pelvic bones and shin to the elderly guests of honour, the brisket to the son or daughter-in-law, the cervical vertebra to girls and so on.
The highest ranking guest is served a sheep's head cooked in a special way and distributes it to other guests according to local tradition (old men, children, close and distant relatives).
The meat is eaten with boiled pasta sheet and a meat broth called sorpa usually sewed in traditional Kazakh bowls called 'pialas'. At the end of the meal kumys is sewed then tea.

The guest of honour was Walli’s sister from Astana who is here for work and she sat at the head of the table, then was Jean-François and Annick (the couple from Ottawa) because they are older, then Nathalie and then us. The table was HUGE and could easily sit 20 people.

The traditional meal they prepared for us is called beshkarmak , which is a meal that back in the day would be eaten with your hands. It consisted of horsemeat, mutton over a huge plate of big lasagna noodles in a vegetable broth. It was very different and tasty. It was our 1st time we ate horsemeat and it was a nice experience. Fil and Jean-François also drank Camel milk, which Fil did not enjoy too much because it was sour. Walli made a toast to welcome us and throughout the meal he requested all of us to make a toast as well. During the meal Walli and Annara gave us all a gift, which was a traditional Kazak costume, which the older people still wear at special occasions. We already bought Dylan one of these outfits on our 1st trip to Kazakhstan back in December and now we both have one too. It was really nice to know from where Dylan Korkem is from and to see true Kazak Culture.

TABLE SETTING WITH GUEST OF HONNOR