NAN – bread for life.
The importance of bread in Kyrgyz life cannot be under-estimated. Bread is present, in one form or another, at every meal. When travelling with Ecotour, you can be sure you get many opportunities to taste our NAN.
NAN is the Kyrgyz word for bread, all bread. Confusion can set in as some of the breads have nan in their names, and some do not, but rest assured, all are delicious.
BOORSOK, the most important of all Kyrgyz nan. Boorsok are small squares of bread, sometimes salty and at other times sweet, that are fried and placed on every table when you have guests. And when we say placed on the table this is, more often than not, quite literally true. They will be spread across the tablecloth in between the various dishes. If you sit down for a meal and there are borsook on the table, this is the first thing you should eat. Often boorsook are served with kaymak, a thick, almost sour, cream. Boorsok are usually home-cooked.
TANDYR NAN, a largish flatbread cooked in a tandyr oven. These circular flatbreads have soft puffy edges and a slightly crisper centre. Tandyr nan is for sale on every street corner, and is a part of almost every meal. If somebody tells you to go out and buy a nan, this is what they mean. Many people also use the Russian name – lepyoshka.
TOKOCH are much smaller round breads. It is rather like someone has taken the flat, thin middle out from a tandyr nan and squeezed the edges closer together. If you prefer the thick, puffy edges of the tandyr nan, then this is the bread for you.
KATTAMA are often made with some onion sprinkled in the pastry mixture. Kattama are made by rolling out the pastry, then painting the flat surface with oil or sary mai (ghee), folding it over and then repeating the process numerous times. The more often you fold and roll the thinner the layers become until you almost have puff-pastry. The kattama is then cooked in a frying-pan. Needless to say, when you eat kattama your fingers end up a little bit greasy.
KATYRAK NAN are crispy rolls of fried pastry, about 7 or 8 centimetres high. A length of pastry is rolled out and loosely rolled up. This is then fried and you end up with almost a big and crispy snail’s shell. More often used when entertaining, katyrak nan are surprisingly moreish.
KALAMA are quite simply pastry rolled into discs and dry-fried. Possibly something like Greek pitta bread. Kalama are again mainly home cooked.
NEVER throw away any nan. It is truly regarded as a form of sacrilege. Eat what you can and leave the rest on the table. Flour and bread have been a staple of the Kyrgyz since time immemorial, and should always be treated with respect. Not quite so bad, but never place a nan upside down, it is another sign of disrespect.
Do you want to learn yourself how to make one or more kinds of nan, just let us know. www.ecotour.kg info@ecotour.kg
And my favourite? The one on the table in-front of me. ENJOY!
