if you're heading to kyrgyzstan you must try these 15 foods
for a small country kyrgyzstan has some really yummy delicious and quite diversified food it's
border with china you will find a lot of things that are inspired with chinese uyghur cuisine like
manti lagman ashliam fu whereas on the other side that is close to uzbekistan you will find a lot
of things that are very persian like pilaf and there's something in the middle that is very
central asian and that's a lot of horse meat it is generally quite yummy it's not very spicy but
it is quite heavy and greasy and it is also very meat heavy what makes this food so special is the
hospitality of kyrgyz people who are incredibly warm and welcoming so without wasting more time
here are the top 15 foods that you should definitely have while you're in kyrgyzstan
i am at the breakfast table and as you can see they've really gone out of their way to create
something really nice kyrgyzstan generally is not a breakfast destination they don't
really do a lot of brunches i don't think i've seen any most of this stuff you will see the
hotels the general population doesn't really make any effort for the breakfast dinners are
the main thing if you want to actually enjoy your food and that's when the restaurants are actually
the busiest so go for lunches and you will have a lot more time and space and it will be more fun
i'm sitting in navat and it's a beautiful restaurant in bishkek i'm gonna try a
special pilaf for holiday and the specialty is actually horse sausage so let's see how that is
really good yummy i'm gonna go finish this and you see the video in the meanwhile
this is the kyrgyz pilaf or the holiday pilaf or khan pilaf and it's made on special occasions
and it comes with this pastry and another really interesting thing is it also has horse
sausages so beware and it comes with these condiments
this one's my favorite it's spicy garlic and you can mix things up here so i'm sitting in
a restaurant called arzoo in bishkek i've ordered something very very kyrgyz which
is called besh barmak and it is actually
noodles with horse meat i'm quite excited because i've heard good things about this place so let's
see what comes out it is a little bit over the top but if the food is good i don't mind
so this is cafe faiza and is my dinner for today this is called goshnan which is
basically stuffed bread and this is shashlik
let's see how that fares but it looks really really delicious so i'm gonna go finish this now
wow
this is shorpo with some bread a soup we're going light tonight
if you see this chicken anywhere definitely try it it's called the muscle chicken i call it that
because they have these billboards with you know like chicken pretending to be bodybuilders
but it's really delicious and if you are actually going camping or hiking or anything
like that it makes perfect lunch and it's really cheap like the entire chicken for like
three pounds or something like that and the skin is amazing
crispy and the interior is really soft and moist so another great thing to to try in kyrgyzstan
one of the things i really liked in kyrgyzstan is that you can actually get a lot of fresh fruits
and in a lot of cases you can actually get them from the trees so you'll get them most of the
spring and summer like these beautiful apricots there are a lot of apples melons watermelon you
name it they have it here and if you're coming in winter they actually preserve quite a lot of it in
the form of compote or jams so all the jams you see around that's made with fresh fruit amazing
this is samsa if you're looking for a quick snack you can find them pretty much everywhere
in the city center it's a bit like indian samosa but i think these are baked rather than fried
so this is what it looks like inside it's like a different meat filling but
you can ask for the vegetarian one as well it's actually really yummy
makes a perfect snack
a big part of food that you will find everywhere in kyrgyzstan almost
is lagman and you can try it either whether you know the runny soupy one or the fried one
the fried one is my favorite and it's kind of like noodles and most of them are actually freshly made
so it's really nice to try and it comes with a lot of veggies it's like a
fairly different dish than the usual meat heavy stuff in kyrgyzstan
really good
i am standing in ashram fu alley which is in the same bazaar so they're all these lovely ladies
making ashram fu which is basically a cold dish with noodles and some other stuff so i've never
had it before i think this is like the most appropriate place to have that let's go try that
so
all right so i'm sitting here with my perfect bowl of ashliam foo which is basically a cold
noodle soup it's made with these normal noodles and these translucent starch ones the corn ones
and there's three different sauces that go into making this cold soup you can make it
as spicy as you want and it is actually a really good cure if you're a hangover
so i'm gonna try this and see what this is like
sorry for my chopstick skills
it's perfect for summers like on hot days when you don't want you know
hot food to make you sweaty it's just perfect and the chili is absolutely amazing it has
a slightly tangy taste which is great i'm gonna go finish this and then we continue
so i'm standing in bazaar in karakol and i've come across something interesting
so these are three national drinks of kyrgyzstan this is fermented mare's milk this is something
that's made with mixed corn and this is made with sweet corn and it is also fermented most of
the drinks are actually fermented and when it is springs they drink a lot of mare's milk which is
basically fresh that sort of cleanses you but it's non-pasteurized so you basically you know
you have to go to the toilet a lot and that's how it cleanses you so i would i don't know if i would
recommend that but if that's your thing you should definitely try these i don't think i'm gonna take
the risk unfortunately let's go continue our tour so walking around i saw these three sort of
coolers that are everywhere and there are you know really sweet ladies sort of inviting you to try
them this one the blue one is called tan and this is like a soured milk drink the one in the middle
is maxim which is made of grain and the green one is actually iced tea they have to be quite
different and interesting so i asked them to make me some and this is what this looks like
yeah it's a bit like sour milk and salt it's a bit like ayran you know the the turkish one
this is maxim and this is more like you know
made of grains and it's i feel like it's slightly fermented
yep it's quite different like never tried anything like that
and this is obviously the green tea i was told you can also try compote here but uh that's not true
so yeah when you're in bishkek definitely try these actually quite nice especially in summer
kyrgyzstan is also not a dessert destination they don't have any of their own dessert except
for one that i heard of called chakchak which is kind of like baklava but other than that
you'll be disappointed and you'll get like most of the time it's just european desserts
not great i really hope you enjoyed this little food tour of kyrgyzstan with me
do let me know in comments what you would want to try first
guys this is brown boy travels let me know what you think of the video
in the comment section if i've missed something please let me know also give me some suggestions
about your country i will see you in the next video until then you have an amazing day ahead