Kazakhstan Street Food

Kazakh street food is built for a nation of vast open steppe — smoky grilled meat and pillowy fried bread, eaten with your hands.

5 street food dishes from Kazakhstan — what each one is, why it's made that way, and what to expect when you order it.

Signature street foods of Kazakhstan

Nomadic Heritage · Fermented Mare's Milk Kumis (Qymyz) It's mildly alcoholic and slightly fizzy — fermented mare's milk that Kazakh herders have brewed the same way for over 2,500 years. Kumis is made by fermenting raw mare's milk with lactic bacteria and yeast, producing a tangy, effervescent drink with a light alcohol content. It's traditionally made and sold at roadside… Grilled Skewers · Open-Flame Shashlik (Шашлык) Legend traces skewer-grilling on the steppe back to horsemen said to have cooked meat on their swords over open fires. Shashlik is meat — usually lamb, beef, or chicken — marinated in onions and simple spices, threaded onto long metal skewers, and grilled over hot charcoal until charred at the edges. It's… Fried Bread · Teatime Staple Baursak (Бауырсак) These fried dough puffs are always torn apart by hand at the table — cutting them with a knife is considered bad form. Baursak are small pieces of yeasted dough deep-fried until golden and puffed, crisp on the outside and soft inside. Market stalls pile them into baskets or bags, and they're eaten plain… Street Food · Steamed Dumpling Manty Manty are steamed, not boiled, stacked in a multi-tiered pot called a kazan — a method that keeps the fatty lamb and onion filling from leaking into… Manty are large steamed dumplings packed with minced lamb or beef, onion, and sometimes pumpkin, pinched closed at the top before steaming. Found at bazaars and roadside cafes, eaten by… Noodle Soup · Silk Road Staple Lagman (Лагман) Lagman's noodles are hand-pulled, not cut or extruded — skilled cooks can stretch a single strand of dough to over 30 feet without snapping it. Thick hand-pulled wheat noodles are ladled into a rich, cumin-spiced broth loaded with stewed beef or lamb, bell peppers, tomatoes and garlic, then topped with fresh herbs. Market cooks…

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