Cuisine of Turkmenistan

The cuisine of Turkmenistan is similar to that of the rest of Central Asia. Plov is the staple, everyday food, which is also served at celebrations. It consists of chunks of mutton, carrots and rice fried in a large pot similar to a Dutch oven. Manty are dumplings filled with ground meat and onions or pumpkin. Chorba is a meat and vegetable soup. A wide variety of filled pies and fried dumplings are available in restaurants and bazaars, including somsas, gutap (often filled with spinach) and ishlykly. These are popular with travelers and taxi drivers, as they can be eaten quickly on the run, and are often sold at roadside stands. Turkmen cuisine does not generally use spices or seasonings, and is cooked with large amounts of cottonseed oil for flavor.

Shashlyk, skewered chunks of mutton, pork, chicken, or sometimes fish, grilled over charcoal and garnished with raw sliced onions and a special vinegar-based sauce, is served in restaurants and often sold in the street. Restaurants in Turkmenistan serve mainly Russian fare such as pelmeni, gretchka, golubchi, and a wide variety of mayonnaise-based salads. Lagman, an Uygher noodle dish, can also be found in some areas.

Melons

Food-wise, Turkmenistan is perhaps most famous for its melons, especially in the former Soviet Union where it was once the major supplier. Though very few melons are exported today, [ [http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPS/Pgrfa/pdf/turkmeni.pdf Turkmenistan: Country Report to the FAO International Technical Conference on Plant Genetic Resource] , Leipzig, 1996, p. 6. Retrieved April 15, 2008] they are a great source of national pride in Turkmenistan and subject of their own Melon Day holiday. Turkmen sources claim the country is home to up to 400 hundred distinct varieties.

Bread

Meals are almost always served with Naan, Central Asian flat bread, known locally as "çörek." Turkmen bread is prepared slightly differently from other breads in the region in thick, round disc-shaped loaves baked in a traditional tamdyr clay oven. Bread has a high symbolic importance in Turkmen culture, [ [http://siyakhat.narod.ru/culture.html Sacred Words "Tamdyr" and "Chorek"] Paseviev, Ikar. Retrieved April 15, 2008] and it is considered highly impolite to turn a loaf of bread upside down or to mistreat bread in any way. There are many superstitions based around bread and its preparation. Bread baked with meat inside ("etli çörek," or "meat bread") can be consumed as a meal in itself. "Yagly çörek" (literally "oily bread") is a flaky, layered type of flat bread made with butter.

Beverages

As in the rest of Central Asia, green tea is the primary drink, consumed at all hours. In the Turkmen language, "chai" (tea) can refer to eating a meal or sitting down for a visit. In the Dashoguz region it is sometimes drunk "Kazakh style" with milk, often to disguise the salty taste of the drinking water in that area.

Vodka is the most popular alcoholic beverage, due to its low cost, followed by beer, wine, brandy, and sparkling wine (Russian: шампанское / shampanskoye).

Gatyk, a thick drinking yogurt similar to Kefir is often served with breakfast and sometimes used as a condiment on börek or manty in lieu of the traditional sour cream. The drink the nation is known for, however, is chal, a fermented camel's milk, which is a white sparkling beverage that has a sour flavour and is popular in Central Asia, particularly in Turkmenistan. [Anatoly Khazanov, Nomads and the outside world, Second edition, University of Wisconsin Press, 1994, p. 49] Because of specific preparation requirements and its being extremely perishable, "chal" presents a great challenge for importers to ship outside Turkmenistan or the region for foreign consumption. [ [http://foodfind.ru/dictionary/1393/ Great Culinary Dictionary. "Chal"] in Russian, retrieved April 11, 2007] It is similar to the Kyrgyz drink shoro. One source notes that Turkmen like to get "agaran" (a type of butter) from the surface of "chal". [ [http://turkolog.narod.ru/info/trkm-32.htm I.Barkhanov. Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper] , in Russian, August 9, [2001] .]

Travelers have the following description of the cooling effect and preparation of the "chal": "Where Turkmen cuisine positively shines is in its dairy foods, from both cows and camels. I tasted the famous chal, fermented camel's milk, and it proved wonderfully cooling in the intense heat. To make chal, the cream is skimmed off the milk, and the milk is thinned with water and left to ferment slightly. (That skimmed-off cream, when it too is fermented slightly, becomes agaran, a rich, thick and extremely nourishing treat.)" [ [http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200601/turkmenistan.on.a.plate.htm Goldstein, Darra, Professor of Russian at Williams College, Turkmenistan on a plate, Saudi Aramco World magazine, January/February 2006, pp. 10-19] .]

References

External links

* [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=13187930&dopt=Abstract Vopr Pitan. "Chemical composition of chal (fermented camel's milk)", 1954 Jul-Aug;13(4):41-2]
* [http://www.greenstone.org/greenstone3/nzdl;jsessionid=3373D1F2BB80999BC21D600A4A7E6D54?a=d&c=hdl&d=HASH01a561fe8c8ed1299b760e82.11&sib=1 Martinenko, N.l., Yagodinskaya, S.G., Adhundov, A.A., Charyev, K.C. and Khumedov, O. (1977). Content of trace elements, copper, manganese, molybdenum in culture of chal and camel's milk and their cilnical significance. Dairy Sci. Abst., 40(7802), p. 824]
* [http://www.iospress.nl/flyers_b/fl9781586034733.pdf B. Faye and P. Esenov (eds.). Desertification Combat and Food Safety. The Added Value of Camel Producers. Volume 362 NATO Science Series: Life and Behavioural Sciences. OS Press Publication, February 2005, 240 pp., hardcover, ISBN: 1-58603-473-1]
* [http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/culture/articles/eav102502.shtml Filip Noubel, "GOLDEN CENTURY OF THE TURKMENS:" A BLEAK PICTURE OF VILLAGE LIFE IN THE DESERT. EurasiaNet photo essay] , 2002-10-25
* [http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Turkmenstan/Dining Turkmen dining]
*http://www.excite.es/viajes/guias/asia/turkmenistan/Conventiones_Sociales