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burpple

#burpple

A seriously good way to start the weekend

#burpple

Molecular xiao long bao

Ohhhh yea, bread and butter crusted langoustine

For dinner, we were treated to a rare non-mutton meal of fresh Son Kul fish. The food is always simple here, the fish was just fried and served with potatoes and some raw onions. I was famished and ate one of my guides' fish too.

In case you were wondering what breakfast was like in Kyrgyzstan, most guesthouses actually served fried eggs, tomato and cucumber salad and of course nan and chai/coffee. This particular breakfast was the one that came after the long sign language game we played with Bakur, who suggested we eat 10 eggs for breakfast. I must say there was a real difference in the eggs, must've been the most organic/natural eggs I've ever had.

Usually we wouldn't stay in places like this one, the Golden Yurt, not cos it's not nice, but because it was a little too nice. We insisted on eating our canned food that we warmed up with the fire @billhiicks built, and told the family we wouldnt need any meals. They were very nice, and seemed to be really enjoying their summer together. They seemed to be one of the more well off families, with a generator (and therefore light and heat) allowing them to drink and gamble all night long as we tired backpackers knocked out at midnight. We came here cos we had made 2 Aussie friends the day before, and we got separated before knowing which yurt each other was going to stay at. Thankfully we both picked the same one, we ended up exchanging crazy stories all night. This was the complimentary breakfast the next morning, with the standard fare of fried eggs, bread, jam, biscuits, yogurt, butter and tea.

The drive from Sary Tash to the Chinese border was not supposed to take more than 2 hrs, but the car we jumped into was taking along detour to drop off an old lady at her home in the middle of nowhere, smack in between China and Kyrgyzstan, with no other house in sight. When we dropped her off, her family members walked up to the car with bowls of freshly churned butter, naan, and a big bowl of hot tea that we shared amongst us. On the floor, you can see a bottle of kymyz, or fermented horse milk that is the country's national drink. There was something about getting out of a car and sharing simple but amazing food amongst us, served by this young girl in the middle of nowhere.

So I managed to find a picture of those fried bun things filled with potato !! I used to buy at least 2, wolf one down before I got on the marshrutka, and stuff the other one in my pocket for later. I loved how even when you fish it out of your pocket all squashed, it still tastes sooo good. The first time I had these was when the mini bus took a quick stop, and we were soon swarmed by a group of young girls selling these on trays.