My host sister got married shortly before I arrived in Kazakhstan! To celebrate, my host mom recently invited her new family members over for dinner. Getting to try all the different foods was really cool, and it was fun to learn more about wedding traditions in Kazakhstan. For example, as the parents of my host sister's new husband walked through the door, all of the dinner guests threw candy at them in celebration of the recent marriage. There was a ton of great food at the dinner, and I really loved getting to try all of it!
While there was A TON of food served at the dinner, the main course was beshbarmak. Beshbarmak is one of the main national dishes of Kazakhstan, and it is mainly meat, noodles, and vegetables. This particular beshbarmak was made using horse meat.
I was honestly a little nervous to try this dish at first. While horse meat is pretty common in Central Asia--the same way a burger might be normal to find in Michigan--I had never tried it before. The meat almost tasted like beef, but there was definitely a distinct flavor to it, and the noodles were really good! I was definitely glad that I gave the dish a try!
