The Real Kazakhstan

We have been wanting to explore the culture of Kazakhstan, not only for our own edification, but also so we can share it with the children later. Outside of the airport, it has been hard to find. Most of the commerical shops deal in Russian items, given the strong Russian influence that was transplanted here during the Soviet era. Today, however, was a major breakthrough. We had lunch at a traditional Kazakh restaurant and went to a shop next door afterwards.

Kazakh food is largely meat based. The meal started with some soft bread and fried dough, the latter of which Blythe happily snarfed down, even though she thought it could really use powdered sugar and cinnamon. She managed to put away several of them though, so apparently the lack of sweetener was not a big drawback. Blythe had a bony dark fish, breaded and sauteed with vegetables. We could not identify the fish, but it was quite tasty. Seth had a breaded lamb steak with rice (also tasty). We also had some Kazakh tea with milk (tepid, but good) and Seth indulged in some traditional Kazakh mare's milk. It has the consistency of cream and the taste of sour milk with a zing to it. It may have been sour; how can we tell? Lauren and Denara had chicken dishes that did not look too heavy.

The restaurant had several private dining areas, and as the place was completely empty, we took pictures in a few of them. It reminded Seth of a Moroccan place that used to be in center city Philadelphia called "Marrakesh". The other Kaufmans will know what we're talking about. Everyone else probably won't, so tough.

Souveneir shopping in the Kazakh store was fun, and Blythe was excited to finally find a comfortable wool hat that was also practical and stylish. The traditional men's hats were much more stylized and were not very flattering on Seth, so he'll be going home with a Kazakh soccer shirt instead.

We had fun with the kids this morning, as always. However, there appears to be some wisdom behind limiting the required bonding period to 2 weeks, which we may not have appreciated before. The children are quite comfortable with us now. This is great, but the flipside is that the novelty has worn off. You may have noticed that almost all of our indoor pictures are in the same small room. This is (for lack of a better term) the bonding room. It's about 8' x 10', and on the weekends when the indoor playground is closed, it's all we've got. Cram 3 adults and 3 kids in there for 3 weeks, and the boredom becomes palpable. When we can run around outside things are good. Inside the kids are wild and insolent, and we can't say that we blame them. This is an artificial situation which has now served its purpose, and we are all anxious just to take our kids home.