Hopefully some of these work out:
On the bottom is a photo of the "Dushanbe All Stars" soccer team (aka host nephew Muhammad Amin, 8; me, 27, and host brother Bunyod, 20).
On the top is a photo of me at a typical meal: Bakhtior, 40s, host father; Saida, 40s, host mother; Muhammad Amin, 8, "Charles' personal helper"; and me, 27, "speaks Uzbek funny."
I think on this occasion we had just polished off a dinner of plov, the national dish of all the Central Asian republics. It's made in a gigantic round pot over the fire with oil, rice, carrots, onions, and usually beef. More exciting varities include chickpeas and raisins (Tashkent); and garlic (Samarkand), and some exciting folks include spices such as tumeric. My Kazakh teacher, Alma, would alwasy brag that Kazakhs had way more meat and that the Uzbeks are stingy with it. I would say this is true; and my host family had the basic version - no spice, chickpeas, raisins, or garlic.
AKA - I was minorly disappointed. So my plov-making dreams will be of a bland version. Other than that, my food has been great;and my host mom still has not repeated a dinner, two weeks or more into the summer.
More to come,
Charles
1 comment:
Dearest Charles:
Your mom passed this on to me...what exciting and wonderful adventures! My own chillins would be lucky to have no dinner repeats in two weeks. How fortunate you are to be experiencing all of this. Keep safe and keep writing. Love to follow along.
xoxox Nanashka Leeza
Post a Comment