Beshbarmak: National Dish of Kazakhstan

Beshbarmak photo from PeretzP

In the early morning hours on the first full day of the 2012 Olympics we saw Kazakh athlete Alexandr Vinokurov win the men’s cycling road race. In honor of this feat we decided to do a little feature on Kazakh food, especially the national dish, Beshbarmak. The name means “five fingers,” and as this implies, the dish is usually eaten by hand, and is a favorite for special events like weddings. It is usually made with horse meat (owing to the traditionally nomadic nature of the country), potatoes, onions and very wide noodle sheets. The dish is also popular in Kyrgyzstan, where it is also claimed as a national dish.  Foodista has a recipe for Beshbarmak using the more conventional for western tastes choice of lamb.