Of course, I followed her orders and was more than ready to eat the beshbarmak when the time was right. The dish is very heavy and can be hard to digest. When I finally ate that day, I got very full, very fast. I felt stuffed for hours, and the feeling lingered through the following day.
Beshbarmak is a relatively simple dish with few ingredients. It contains large, wide noodles, chopped onions and potatoes. The most important part of the dish is the meat. Any meat can be used for beshbarmak, but traditionally, people use horse meat. When I ate beshbarmak, my host mom used horse sausages called kazy. Horse meat may be taboo in other countries, but it is a delicacy in Kazakhstan. It has a unique flavor, somewhat reminiscent of beef, but immediately discernable. To prepare the meat for beshbarmak, the cook boils it for several hours. This is also where the broth comes from. You eat the cooked meat over the noodles with chopped raw onions and boiled potatoes.
Beshbarmak is connected to Kazakh history. Kazakh people were traditionally nomadic, meaning they moved around rather than staying in one location. As a result, they depended largely on herding cattle rather than on agriculture (crops). For this reason, meat is a central component of Kazakh cuisine.
