The Kazakhstani people are not yet civilized enough to derive most of their calories from food that is mined halfway around the world, hastily assembled by machines in a far off factory, packaged in freshness preserving plastics with a list of unpronounceable ingredients, bought at a supermarket 5-10 miles from home, stored in an oversized pantry for 3-6 months and then consumed from a vessel that fits neatly into a car's cup holders. You're probably thinking that this is tragic and that the US should increase it's foreign aid budget to hastily correct the sad predicament. But fear not, dear reader, for Snickers bars are already cheaply available here and a gloriously sterilized food future no doubt awaits.

Before we talk about the food here, I think it's important to mention some of the underlying reasons why diets are different here than in the fifty nifty. First, the GDP per capita (PPP) of Kazakhstan is about one quarter that of the US. Naturally, if people are not as wealthy, their diets are different. Second, in the United States we have 765 vehicles for every one thousand people. Kazakhstan, by contrast, has 170. Hence, it's generally more difficult for a person or a family to go a long way to acquire their food. Finally, tupperware and refrigerators aren't nearly as popular as back home (at least with the family I live with). There are probably a host of reasons for that, but the result is that leftovers must be eaten before the original meal has been buffered by time and new tastes.

With that being said, the manner in which food is prepared at my house is that ingredients are bought from a store less than a kilometer away, brought home in plastic sacks and then set on the kitchen floor. Eventually, a large pot of some sort will be cooked up. Generally this will either be soup, or some sort of meat/vegetable mixture that will be eaten over rice or pasta. I have not yet eaten the same mixture twice, so my suspicion is that ingredients are chosen from the floor such that those that would rot first are used first. The whole pot will stay on the kitchen stove until it is used completely, a process that seems to take 1-2 days. In addition to the main course, which will be the same for the same 1-2 day period, there are generally pears, tomatoes, and candies on the table for side dishes. Oh, and bread and butter.

Since a picture is worth more than a few words, I decided to photograph a sample of my meals over the course of a few days.

Now, all of this is not to say that I am at all dissatisfied with my food situation here. It is quite delicious to my admittedly undiscerning taste and is more than enough to satisfy my hunger. Maybe at some point in the future I'll have enough money to try to impress people with some sophisticated affinities for expensive foods, but for now I'm quite content to be eating somewhat locally and healthily.