Vol. 53 — One Platter, Many Hands
Kazakhstan
From Almaty to the steppe
Standfirst
Beshbarmak carried in on a single wide platter. Manti steaming under a cloth. Baursak piled warm in a bowl and tea poured again before the cup is empty. Kazakhstan feeds guests first and counts portions later.
Chapter One
The platter everybody reaches into
Beshbarmak is the centre of the Kazakh table: boiled meat and wide sheets of dough with onion broth, brought out on one platter for the whole room. The name means five fingers, and it is eaten the way it sounds — with your hands, from the same dish, in company.
Nothing about it is individual. The best pieces are offered to the eldest guest, the broth is drunk from bowls afterwards, and the meal only ends when the host decides it has.
Tea is refilled before the cup is empty — that is how a Kazakh table says you are welcome to stay.
— On the Kazakh table
Chapter Two
Steam, coals and tandyr bread
Manti are pleated by hand and steamed under a cloth until the dough turns glossy. Shashlik goes over coals in the heat of summer, turned by hand and salted plainly. Plov comes rice by rice, heavy with carrot and lamb fat.
Bread is baked against the wall of a tandyr and torn, never cut, and baursak is fried in small golden pieces and piled in a bowl for everyone to take from at once.
The Kazakhstan poster — beshbarmak, plov, manti, shashlik and baursak drawn as one illustrated kitchen wall.
Chapter Three
Sour, salted and kept for later
Pieces for people who know kurt by its salt, drink shubat without flinching and keep the teapot on all afternoon.
Blanket — Almaty
Poster — Astana
Poster — Shymkent
Vol. 53 — One Platter, Many Hands — the pieces
Shop the Kazakhstan pieces
Everything photographed in this issue that is currently in the studio.
Kazakhstan · Apron
Kazakhstan Food Apron
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Kazakhstan · Blanket
Kazakhstan Food Blanket
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Kazakhstan · Food poster
Kazakhstan Food Poster Black
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Kazakhstan · Food poster
Kazakhstan Food Poster Pink
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Kazakhstan · Food poster
Kazakhstan Food Poster White
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The Collection
The Kazakhstan Collection
Beshbarmak, plov, manti, shashlik, baursak, kurt and tandyr bread — the Kazakh table in one illustrated composition.
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