Kazakh specialties аrеmeat and sour-milk dishes: besbarmak (meat and noodles), kazy, karta, shuzhuk, zhal, zhaya (types of horsemeat sausage), baursaks (savory dоughnuts), kurt (аhard curd chess), kozhe (milk soup), irimshik (curds) and airan (ауоghurt drink).
Кazy is a common element on a dastarkhan, a table set for a festive meal. A smoked horse-meat sausage, is аparticularly popular delicacy.
Kumys - the national drink is made by fermenting raw unpasteurized mare's milk over the course of hours or days, often while stirring or churning. (The physical agitation has similarities to making butter). During the fermentation, lactobacilli bacteria acidify the milk, and yeasts turn it into a carbonated and mildly alcoholic drink.
Besbarmak - the national kazakh dish,the term Beshbarmak means "five fingers", because the dish is eaten with one's hands. The boiled meat is usually diced with knives, often mixed with boiled noodles, and garnished with parsley and coriander.
Kuurdak (offal stew) - is a Central Asian dish which may sound exotic and complicated but it is really easy to prepare. It basically involves sautéing meat, potato and onions. With so few ingredients the quality of the ingredients becomes particularly important. Red meat is more commonly used but there is no rule against using chicken! Sometimes Kuurdak is made with innards such as intestines.
Baursaks (savoury doughnuts) - are must-have food in every Kazakh family. Now, baursaks are not only cooked and eaten by the Kazakhs. Baursaks are served to tea, before main course, to mare’s milk (‘kumys’), to snacks, and to strong broth (‘sorpa’). It is both festive and everyday food liked by many, both young and old.