Learn Kazakhstan before you go

10 phrases to learn

Capital letters show the stressed part. Tap the heart to practise a phrase later.

At the table

• A guest is always given the place of honour at the table and a special welcome. Meals are traditionally laid out on a low table called a dastarkhan.
• Tea is poured only part of the way up the bowl, called a kese. A small pour is a sign of respect, because the host will refill it again and again to keep your tea hot. A full bowl can hint that it is time to leave.
• The host carves the meat for beshbarmak and hands out the best pieces to the most honoured guests and to children. The most honoured guest may be offered the boiled sheep's head to share out.
• Tea comes with every meal, usually strong black tea with milk, and a festive meal often ends with kymyz and then more tea.
• Vegetarians should ask before ordering: even dishes without meat are very often cooked in meat stock.

Local tips

Dishes to try

• Beshbarmak (Бесбармақ (besbarmaq), also simply ет (et, 'meat')): Large pieces of boiled mutton or horse meat, often with horse sausage, served on a wide platter over sheets of thin boiled dough and topped with onions softened in the rich broth. The broth itself, sorpa, is drunk from bowls alongside. The name means 'five fingers', because it was traditionally eaten with the hands.
• Kazy (Қазы (qazy)): A handmade sausage of horse meat and fat, dried or smoked and then boiled. It is sliced into rounds, each with a ring of white fat, and served cold as a starter with other cold meats, or cooked together with beshbarmak on festive days.
• Kuyrdak (Қуырдақ (quyrdaq)): A hearty dish of fried meat and offal, such as liver, heart and kidneys, cut small and cooked with onions in a cauldron. Nomads traditionally made it from a freshly slaughtered sheep, frying it in animal fat; potatoes, which reached the region in the 19th century, are often added today.
• Manty (Мәнті (mänti)): Large steamed dumplings filled with minced lamb or beef, onion and black pepper, sometimes with pumpkin. They are cooked in a tall steamer with several tiers and served with butter, sour cream or an onion sauce.
• Laghman (Лағман (lağman)): Long, hand-pulled wheat noodles topped with a stir-fried sauce of meat, peppers, tomatoes, onion and garlic. In Kazakhstan it is known as a national dish of the Uyghur and Dungan communities, and it is found in cafés all over the country.
• Nauryz kozhe (Наурыз көже (nauryz köje)): A thick soup made once a year for Nauryz, the spring new year in March. It is cooked from seven ingredients, which vary by region but usually include meat, fat, water, milk, grain and salt. The seven ingredients stand for good fortune and plenty in the coming year.
• Baursak (Бауырсақ (bauyrsaq)): Small puffy pieces of fried dough, golden outside and soft inside, piled high on every dastarkhan. They are eaten with tea, butter, honey or jam, and a family gathering without baursak is hard to imagine.
• Shelpek (Шелпек (şelpek)): A thin, round flatbread fried in oil in a shallow pan, soft and slightly chewy. It is eaten with tea and is also made for gatherings in memory of the dead.

Cities to see

• Astana (capital): The Baiterek tower, Khan Shatyr, a giant transparent tent, Very cold winters.
• Almaty: Mountain views and the Medeu skating rink, The wooden Ascension Cathedral, Aport apples.
• Shymkent: Silk Road history, Markets and southern food, A gateway to Turkistan.
• Karaganda: Coal mining, Soviet-era architecture, Central steppe landscape.
• Aktobe: Oil and gas, Metal industry, Gateway to the western steppe.
• Turkistan: The Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, Pilgrimage, The ruins of nearby Otrar.

Landmarks and the city map are on the Kazakhstan trip