We had a meal in the Cholpon-Ata area in some people’s home. While Kyrgyzstan is a reasonably modern, not all areas have restaurants that meet the standards of our tour company. We had several meals in family’s homes because OAT had worked out a deal with them to feed us, much like a restaurant. This was the first of those meals.

Their home was out in a rural area where lots of farming was being done. We drove through several layers of streets to get to this home. I would say that this home was nicer than most in the neighborhood but not by a huge margin. I put in the first photo for several reasons. First is to show that they live in a modern home. It has nice gardens with flowers and fruit trees. But look to the right of their home and you can see their yurt. It is in perfect order and looked like it gets regular use. These Kyrgyz hold tight to their nomadic past. I’m not sure what they use the yurt for, but perhaps sleeping outside on warm nights.

Pete (Vicky’s brother) and Nora are standing in the dining room in the second photo. I found the pictures on the wall telling as well. On the left are two horses and again, the Kyrgyz hold to their nomadic past. The photo on the right is the Burana Tower where we had visited the day before. Again, these folks hold to their past history. You can see how the table was set on our arrival.

The third photo is a closer look at some of the food on the table when we arrived. We had pastry filled with meat, fresh-picked cherries, pizza (or something remarkably similar), a garden fresh salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and lettuce, a warm noodle salad with lots of peppers and other vegetables, a plate of cooked vegetables including tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, etc., fresh-baked bread, homemade apricot jam, a different stuffed pastry, yogurt, fresh cream, and several other things including cookies and candies.

The fourth photo is a horrid photo but this was the main dish. I forgot to get a photo until it was almost gone but it was noodles with meat. It’s a bad photo but it was a good dish.

Music at meals was quite common as the central Asians seem to be quite musical. At this house, the owner’s three granddaughters provided the music. Considering their ages, they were quite good and both sang and played. It was very nice for us as this was a long trip and we were missing our own grandkids.