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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Saeed Kamali Dehghan

A taste of the nomadic life leaves a legacy of strokes in Kazakhstan

Zhambytai Zhumaliyava, a farmer's wife, and her granddaughter Ayazhan prepare traditional kurt balls made from goat milk, salt and spices
Zhambytai Zhumaliyava and her granddaughter Ayazhan prepare kurt balls, a cheese made from goat milk, salt and spices. Photograph: Reuters/Alamy

Kazakhstan’s national cuisine is not complete without salt. It is in everything from kurt, a hard cheese made by drying fermented milk, to beshbarmak (“five fingers”), a dish of boiled meat with noodles, named because nomads traditionally used their hands to eat it.

“You can’t take our salty national dishes away from us,” one Kazakh tells the Guardian. “Some regions only eat salty horsemeat.”

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