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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Hello From Kazakhstan

I am here working with agricultural advisors who help farmers increase their production. Here are a few pictures.

At a huge market, a vendor asks my partner to try the dried apricots to go with the almonds he just purchased. There is literally hundreds of displays of every kind of produce in this market. In the meat section, I saw hanging carcasses of many species of animals include horses that the butchers were cutting up. The skinned heads of the animals (including horses) were displayed for purchase as people eat various parts of the heads too.


At a celebration banquet, as the honored guest, I received the lambs head and got to be the first one to take a bite out it. They carved of a ring of gristle from the ear and I stuck it in my mouth. I gagged a bit and put it in my cheek for storage until I could discreetly remove it later. I knew that if I tried to chew and swallow it, the OUTCOME might be quite embarrassing. Below the lambs head you can see horse meat – yum, yum (It doesn’t taste like chicken).


At a sheep ranch out on the desert. I was lucky that I was wearing my riding boots.

~Dale


3 comments:

Kenneth Moore said...

That sounds to be an amazing trip--but what does horse taste like? I may be a vegetarian, but I have had sausage, pepperoni, and chicken in the past 24 hours. I am not that good of a vegetarian, but I have been sick, and I need meat. LoL

But lamb, oh yummy! Why does the head taste so different?

Dale Johnson said...

The closest thing to horse meat that I have tasted is buffalo.
Horse is a much heavier or dense meat than beef, almost like heart meat. I don't particularly like it but I can eat it. The lamb here is very good. It is usually roasted over a various kinds of wood coals that give it great flavor. The head of lamb just doesn't have much to eat on it. The ear grisle just made me gag.

There are no fast food restaurants here yet. I am very happy about that.

Eating dinner with friends here is a all eveing affair. Several courses. And most of the food I like - Fresh vegetables, soups, salads, good bread, good meats.
They do take their food serious and lament the day that McDonalds will change their culture.

Many people who live in the city, have a small one room summer home (dacha) in the country with a plot where they have a garden. They go there every weekend

courtneyb said...

way cool. Good for you to be helping other countries.

I had horse in France, not very tasty.