Riverside Market · Smoked Freshwater Fish

Smoked Irtysh Fish

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The Irtysh is one of the few major rivers on Earth that flows toward the Arctic Ocean — its water leaving Kazakhstan's Altai foothills and joining the Ob River, which eventually empties into the Kara Sea.

Pike, perch, and other freshwater catches from the Irtysh River are salted and smoked over wood, then sold whole or in fillets from market counters in Oskemen and river towns along its banks. Locals buy it to eat cold as a snack with bread or beer, peeling the skin back at the table.

Why it's made this way: The Irtysh has run through East Kazakhstan's Altai foothills for as long as people have settled here, and smoking the catch remains the simplest way river communities preserve fish through the region's long, cold winters.