Boysun. Masterpieces of Central Asia
CUISINE (P.30)
The life-style and culture of a nation are reflected in its cuisine. For Boysun inhabitants, like most people, it starts from bread. Every woman must know how to knead dough from flour and bake home made bread. As in other regions of Uzbekistan, they use earthen stoves “tandirs” in which the round bread “obi-non” is baked. This type of bread, that looks like the Sun, is usual for the whole Central Asian region. The “obi-non” bread of Boysun is less simple in comparison with the hard and rich bread of Samarkand or the soft bread of Tashkent. It is resembls a very flat and dry biscuit. Another speciality of Boysun cuisine are “tunuk” pancakes. They are flattened out on the table into a thin layer, and then fried in oil in a big pot , or “qozon”, resulting in a stodgy bread-dish that is eaten together with soups and tea. Today, as in the remote past, in Boysun stock-breeding products are highly valued. Milk, curd, dairy kefir “qatiq” are widely consumed. Favorite meat dishes are lamb, goat meat, beef and chicken. Except boiled meat and “qozon gosht” meat fried in a “qozon”, meat cooking in a “tandir” – “tandir-kabob” – is wide-spread. For this purpose chopped pieces of meat are put into the white-hot earthen stove. Fir twigs are used to give a good aroma. No doubt the special meaty food accounts for the vigour, endurance and physical strength of Boysun people, ensuring them constant success in folk horse games “kopkari” and wrestling “kurash”.
|
|