The Food

There should be such a thing as foodlag. We lost 12 hours in time when we came here and they call it Jetlag. But we also lost our diet, as we knew it when we arrived here. Some of it, such as the ramen noodles, granola bars, tea, hot chocolate and trail mix was familiar. It wasn’t what I normally would consider lunch or supper but we’ve made do. Of course then there are the experiences in going out to eat. We discovered quickly that there are several levels of misunderstanding at restaurants. There is first of all the Cyrillic alphabet, which is some weird combination between Hebrew, Greek and English alphabet among others. However, gaining your confidence in reading these words simply helps you to be able to read what you don’t understand. Then just to top it off, you see letters you don’t know and find out that many things are written in Kazakh which has it’s own alphabet! Well, after managing through the maze of letters and language, we have managed to order several different things such as chicken soup, Shish kabobs, a steak dish, French fries and pizza. Pizza here in Kazakhstan is slightly different than our western concept of this great food, even if you aren’t from Chicago. Wendy had a vegetarian pizza one night, which consisted of corn and peas. Last night I decided to order an “American” pizza that had mutton sausage on it. Also, none of the pizza has sauce on it. Since we’ve arrived, I have tried chicken, sheep, cow and some sort of pickled octopus or herring dish. Don’t tell Abiah but somehow, horsemeat has found itself on most menus. I say, chalk it up to experience. We are taking it all in and are very thankful for the opportunity to soak up Kazakh culture.