Kazakh Kitchen Invasion

On Saturday afternoon, the AUBG students hailing from Kazakhstan came over to Anne and Mark's house to prepare foods from their native country.  This was part of "Taste Fest," a festival at the University wherein the students from each country prepared foods from their native land and shared them with the rest of the group.  For those of you who are interested, yes, AUBG has an American student contingent, and Anne and Mark have learned that they did, in fact, participate in this festival.  What foods did they choose to represent the United States?  Mark suggested tacos, spaghetti and kung-pao chicken, but for some reason these were all rejected, as were deep-fried Twinkies and hot dogs.  The Americans, we are told, went with meatloaf and apple pie.  Not bad.  The management of this blog is open for suggestions as to what the Americans should serve next year to represent the culinary delights of the U.S.A.  Any ideas?  Anyway, back to Kazakhstan.

Flag of Kazahkstan

Kazakhstan is a (real) country located in central Asia.  For those of you who may have seen Kazakhstan represented in pop culture, especially movies, we are told that these are gross misrepresentations.  Please disregard them.  First of all, a bit of background.  Kazakhstan is a former Soviet republic that became an independent nation in 1991.  It is the ninth largest country in the world by land mass, but 62nd in population, meaning it is sparsely populated (kind of the 'Wyoming of central Asia').  Historically, the people native to Kazakhstan have included nomadic herdsmen.  The cuisine of Kazakhstan, therefore, must necessarily be portable.  As you can see below, all of the foods the students prepared could be classified as 'finger foods.'

The first dish the students made was called baursaki.

Essentially, these were small pieces of dough, fried, and covered in powdered suger.  These were quickly recognized by Mark as part of his "doughnuts around the world" project.  These were delicious.

Second, the students prepared manti.  These are a form of dumplings containing beef, onions and other vegetables.

As you can see from the photo above, Anne and Mark got half-way through their dumplings before they remembered to take a photo to share on the blog.  The smell of the manti announced their impending arrival long before Anne and Mark stole them from the students, er, um, I mean before the students shared them with Anne and Mark.

The students involved in this effort needed to make enough of their native foods to share with the school community.  There are 1100 students here, plus faculty, staff, etc.  So the effort involved was significant.