Plov

Plov is a traditional meal from nearby Uzbekistan. It is now made all over the former Soviet Union. We know it as Pilau, Pilaf or Pilav. We ate Plov a number of times whilst we were in Kyrgyzstan and this is a photo of the first time we experienced it with our friends. Although I am vegetarian, the Kyrgyz people don't 'get' vegetarian and so I often found myself eating meat. This was one of those occasions.

It's pictured here along with lepeshka, the bread in the background and a commonly eaten salad of tomatoes and onions and a big pile of black grapes picked fresh from their vine at the side of the house.

I decided that I'd like to learn how to make it the Kyrgyz way. I asked a friend to teach me how. She told me that her mother made 'the best Plov in Kyrgyzstan'! So I asked her mother to teach me. She agreed. But on the night of the Plov lesson her mum couldn't come because of illness in the family.

and so.......

 her mum sent her friend whom we had met before, and her friend's granddaughter as translator.

She's a gorgeous woman and we had a great time in our Plov-making lesson. 

First we poured 250ml oil (yep, not a typo!) into the cooking pot to get nice and hot and ready for our meat. Next we chopped up 1kg of beef into big chunks at least half the size of my fist. Don't ask me what cut of beef it was because I can't read those Russian words and the girls in the shop just put the correct meat into my hand. My teacher didn't look at it strangely. The chunks of meat went into the pot to be browned on all sides.

Then we chopped up1 kg onions and put them into the pot with the meat to brown. While they were browning we chopped up 1 kg carrots into straws. These were added to the big pot when the onions seemed 'ready'.

I had bought too much meat so we had to divide our Plov into two pans.

(The reason there are no photos of the earliest part of this lesson is that I forgot! Sorry about that.)

While the meat, onions and carrots were stewing away in the oil, we prepared 1 kg rice. Apparently I had bought low quality rice which needed cleaning - the downside of not being able to read the language. I wonder what else we ate because we couldn't read what the label said! 

We washed the rice and my teacher was fastidious about making sure everything that should be gone was gone. 

Now it was time to add the rice to the pan with 1 litre of boiling water along with 'the flavourings'. I had bought all but the flavourings because it was her responsibility to bring those. And so what were they? Chili powder and mono sodium glutamate! Yep, you got it! In it went! On went the lid and it cooked slowly away for 30 minutes.

Then more of the family arrived to join us to eat our delicious Plov. It was fun. I think I can do it again but I'll be leaving out the msg and finding some other 'flavouring'.

This is my last post for a couple of weeks. I fly to Bangkok again in two weeks for the YFC General Assembly and I expect to blogging again then. Enjoy the break.

Getting around Bishkek

I'm back home but just had a couple more blog posts to send out!

In Bishkek mostly we walked, but because of the very efficient public transport system and after a bit of orientation, we found it quite easy to make our way around Bishkek using the public transport system.

  We discovered an extremely helpful website that made our getting around much simpler than it might have been. bus.kg  We simply clicked on the map of the city, set departure and destination points and it worked out the best way to get us from Point A to Point B.

We found marshrutkas, their minibuses, really handy. Pay 10 som as you get on (about 20c) and ride as far as you want. So simple.

 They were a bit hot and airless on these 38⁰ days, but we are young enough and fit enough to survive. Young people always get up for older people. That helps.

Depending on where we wanted to go, trolley buses were sometimes our best option. We caught the number 4 or 17 to church on Sundays. Pay 8 som as you get off, about 16 cents for us.

  If we had been wanting to catch a taxi, on the other hand, we would be able to find one parked and waiting on any street corner!! Not where we would expect to see a taxi parked, is it?

We didn't use taxis very often because my limited Russian vocabulary wouldn't have been sufficient to get our message across of where we wanted to go and then not have them rip us off as we got out.

And as it is Summer at the moment and can be pretty hot (high 30's most of last week) we made use of the drink stands that appear on just about every street corner in the city. These sell a variety of local drinks for 6 som (about 12 cents), including iced tea, compote, made from fresh fuirt, Maksim and Kumys.

Maksim is a wheat based drink that Kyrgyz like to drink in the summer and is said to be particularly healthy.

Another one is Kumys - fermented mare's milk. Both of these, I would have to say, must be acquired tastes!

This girl was at the corner of our street and was a friendly face as we walked by. I bought my iced tea from her a couple of times.

For those of you who have wondered, if ever there are words in blue and 'different looking' like bus.kg at the top of this blog post, if you click on that it will take you to a website with information about what I have mentioned.

Bishkek

To me it seems that Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, is trying to move on.
There are signs of the old and the new - the old Soviet days and the new Kyrgyz Republic.

It is common to see once-grand buildings falling into disrepair,

 

and cranes at work on new buildings.

There are crumbling footpaths

and stunning city squares.

This is their White House, the presidential office building - fairly impressive!

Closeby is a monument which is 'an exposition of two stones: black and white. At the joint of the two stones people push away the black stone. The monument symbolises the victory of good over evil, light over dark' 

 There are lots of very attractive tree-lined streets, 

 

parks

 and gardens throughout the city,

 and the people work hard at keeping it clean and tidy.

 

 I was impressed by their cute little rubbish bins all around the city.

And I must say that I was surprised to find that marijuana grows wild in lots of random places around Bishkek, especially as it is supposed to be illegal!

On our way to the Girls' House we walked down a quiet street which Joan renamed 'Marijuana Lane'.

Cooking piroshki

On Mondays we go to the Girls' House to hang out for the day. Sometimes we have leaders meetings, sometimes we go shopping or visiting from there and always we eat some sort of food while we're there. A couple of weeks ago Joan helped make Piroshki - Russian fried dumplings filled, in this case, with potato and onion.

 First a large batch of dough was made and left to rise - a simple dough with flour, water and yeast.  Two of the girls chopped the onion to be cooked with the potato for the filling.

When the vegetables were cooked, the potato filling was spooned onto the flattened portions of dough and rolled into little logs.

 Many hands make light work, as we know.

  

Joan knows exactly how to put piroshki together now.

 When they're filled and rolled they're fried in hot oil.

Far from a health food, but very very delicious. Piroshki would have to be one of my favourite indulgences in Kyrgyzstan.

Tourists for a day

Last Thursday we visited Lake Issyk Kul

This huge and very beautiful lake is a couple of hours from the capital, Bishkek, in northeastern Kyrgyzstan. Situated in the northern Tien Shan mountain range, it is one of the largest mountain lakes in the world. Its name (from the Kyrgyz word for "hot lake") refers to the fact that it doesn't freeze during the winter.

 At the beginning of our journey, not far from the city, the farmland beside the road was picturesque and productive. Mountains always in the background. I asked our director one day if there is anywhere in Kyrgyzstan where one cannot see mountains. He thought not.

This is their biggest tourist route and so tourists are catered for all along the road. In these traditional Yurts there was a wide range of Kurut for sale.

Kurut is hard dried balls of fermented milk or milk curds. I haven't acquired the taste for kurut yet and probably never will. I don't thnk I could bring myself to put another piece into my mouth. It is extremely salty and very weird but would be great if you were dying from starvation in a harsh climate - as some nomads might be.

I was quite impressed with the colours and shapes of the kurut here. It really looks quite appetising, don't you think?

As we went deeper into the mountains and closer to the lake, the landscape changed and was quite arid. I was pretty happy about the clouds that day, from a photographic point of view.

In the villages we went through along the way, I was taken with the pretty and simple little houses on the roadside.

 Also along the roadside, food was available for sale - mostly dried fish (from the lake). . .

 

. . . and apricots. It's summer and apricots seem to be everywhere and certainly on the road to Issysk Kul.

 

They are purchased by the bucketful and our bucket was 200c (Kyrgyz som). That's about $4.  In Australia I firmly believe that it is not possilbe to buy apricots from a supermarket that taste like real apricots. These tasted VERY real.

Because this country is land-locked they have no ocean - this is as good as it gets for them. And it is very beautiful. The sand is as fine and clean as our best beaches in Australia, the water is clean and clear and at least 18⁰C, but there is no tide. They have no concept of tide. Isn't worldview interesting?

 We enjoyed spending time with our host director and his family for the day at the very beautiful Lake Issyk Kul

and then headed home via some more stunning Kyrgyz scenery. . . .

 

and some sweet corn on the roadside at dusk, as you do!

'The corn lady' was such a happy person and wanted her photo taken lots. . .

. . . especially with an Australian. We are pretty unusual and popular here in Kyrgyzstan.

And how could I say 'No' to a photo of this guy?!

 The storm brewing behind the mountains on the homeward journey was dramatic.
We were home late and tired after a great day out as tourists.