Note: this article was AI-generated, then reworked quite a lot, like always. I hate AI.
Horse meat
Traditional Kazakh food grew from pastoral life on the steppe. That means a lot of boiled meat, fat, dough and preserved milk. It’s plain, barely spicy. Modern Kazakh food is better, tho.
Beshbarmak is the dish everyone mentions: horse meat, lamb or beef served over wide sheets of dough with broth and onions. It is a substantial communal dish, and restaurant portions may be intended for several people. Ask how many the serving feeds before ordering; solo travellers will usually find lagman, manty or soup easier to order. It’s eaten by hands, like god intended.
Kazy is horse-rib sausage with a generous strip of fat. It is dense, salty and often sliced over beshbarmak. Try it if you are curious about horse meat; avoid it if visible animal fat disgusts you.
Kuyrdak is fried meat or offal with onions and potatoes. Unlike beshbarmak, it actually gets browned in the pan, so it is the better order if boiled meat does nothing for you.
Cheese
Baursak are pieces of fried dough served with tea or a meal. The name sounds unfortunately close to ballsack in English. (Or my english as a frenchman, anyway)
Fresh baursak are soft and slightly oily; small dry ones are better for a bus or train. They are not a dessert unless something sweet comes with them.
Kurut is dried fermented dairy shaped into small white balls. It can be extremely salty and has a hard, chalky texture, so buy one to try before committing to a large bag.
Contrary to popular beliefs, kuruts are apparently not rolled under the armpits. But the salty taste defo feels like men’s armpits. If yours smells oniony, maybe it was actually done that way, but by a woman.
Almaty
Almaty is where the choice stops being limited to traditional Kazakh food. Uyghur lagman, Uzbek-style plov, Russian food, Korean food and Georgian food are all part of what people actually eat in the city. It’s a strong USSR culture (+ Korean, who have been displaced here for a long time)
At the Green Bazaar, concentrate on things you can compare or carry: dried fruit, nuts, bread, kurt and prepared salads. Sample unfamiliar products before buying a large quantity, particularly strongly flavoured kurt.
Order beshbarmak when you have people to share it with. Alone, get lagman, manty, shashlik, plov or soup instead.
Korean food is authentic, and really lovely. Kazakh koreans are looking totally different from south koreans. I believe it’s because they don’t do the cosmic surgeries. The food didn’t receive implants either.
Astana
Astana is the easier place for a full traditional spread, particularly if you want beshbarmak with kazy and tea. Central restaurants can be expensive. Russian food is more common than in Almaty. YOu can also find international brands in Astana, easily get fried chicken, pizzas, burgers… No tasty crousty, no french tacos. If you want to start the business, you can, I just gave you the tip.
Mangystau and road food
Mangystau tours leave Aktau for long stretches without a lot of shops. You may ask what the operator actually packs or purchase on the road (ours made a pitstop to buy the ingredients); “meals included” may mean camp food for several days. Carry extra water and something that survives heat (like snacks, easy to purchase in Aktau). Dietary restrictions need arranging before departure. In my tour with RedMaya, we stopped at roadside canteens. It was quite nice.
IIRC, I spoke about it in my How To Mangystau article itinerary
If you go by yourself, you’ll probably need a portable stove. The Ustyurt plateau and Bozjyra are far from civilization, so if, like most, you camp outside, bring something simple. Mantis and dumplings can probably survive the day. A pasta salad can go a long way.
What you will probably eat more often
Formal Kazakh dishes are only part of the picture. Lagman is a bowl of noodles, meat and vegetables; manty are large steamed dumplings (meat or pumpkin, like samsas); plov is rice cooked with meat and carrots; samsa are baked meat or pumpkin pastries; shashlik is grilled meat sold by the skewer; and lepeshka is the round flatbread sold in bakeries and markets. These are simpler solo orders and are likely to feed you more often than beshbarmak.
Drinks
Kumys is fermented mare’s milk: sour, lightly fizzy and sometimes mildly alcoholic. Kumis/Kumys is not Halal but central asian muslims love it.
Shubat, made from camel milk, is thicker and common in western Kazakhstan. Buy the smallest serving first. I got a taste in Mangystau: It’s definitely not for everyone (I shared one glass with two other travellers, none liked it, but at least, we all tried!)
Dietary notes
Vegetarians should target Almaty and Astana cafes, I found some vegan places and coffee shops (Filled with pretty women, btw, if cool women are your thing. And a lot of cool looking duded too, if that’s up your alley. Food is food)
Georgian restaurants have a lot of vegetarian options. Gluten-free travel is difficult because noodles, bread, dumplings and fried dough are common.
Source log
- Kazakhstan government culture page: official context for beshbarmak, kazy, kuyrdak, baursak, kumys, shubat and Kazakh cuisine.
- Visit Astana - beshbarmak: official city tourism food context.
