Day/Country #9 -- Turkmenistan

Day Nine and I'm ashamed to admit that due to unscheduled circumstances Mum is doing the cooking for a third time in a row (I promise to make it up to her somehow).

Consequently our culinary journey took us not to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, but to the opposite side of the world...to Turkmenistan.

 Turkmen Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 491,210 km²

Population: ~5,125,693

Capital: Ashgabat

GDP (PPP) per capita: $7,846

Official Language: Turkmen

Known For: Turkmenbashi, national censorship,

Bukhara carpets, Darvaza Gas Craters

Turkmenistan, lying in the heart of the Middle East, gave Mum a bit of trouble, both in terms of finding a traditional dish to cook and because of her aversion to the country's national censorship (websites such as youtube, twitter and facebook are banned, among far more important things) and its politics (having declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 after 69 years of Soviet rule, Turkmenistan was run by 'president for life' Saparmut Niyarov who banned things like opera and the circus for not being 'Turkmen' enough).

We can't do much about the country's politics (which have become more democratic in recent years, with the first ever opposition party being established in 2012...a small step on a long road; according to Wikipedia residents are restricted in their international travel, and universities are encouraged to reject applicant who do not have Turkmen surnames), but Mum did make progress with the food.  On further investigation she discovered that most of the popular dishes in Turkmenistan are essentially Turkish with a Russian twist.

With that Mum came up with a variation on a dish called Pel'Mani, involving lamb and onion-stuffed dumplings (homemade!) served with curry-oil (curry powder, tumeric, garlic and chilli mixed with oil), tomato sauce/salsa and yoghurt (we substituted sour cream at short notice as it turned out our yoghurt had turned into a small ecosystem all its own).

Mum was dubious but I, an avid dumpling fan, tucked in...and of course it was fantastic.  The lamb gave the dumplings a good strong flavour, but they wouldn't have been so nice without the trio of sauces drizzled on top.  The zesty combination of flavours made us both glad that Mum had made enough dumplings for us to have a second meal of them again--probably soon!

Our drink for the day was another original cocktail made with iced green tea and vodka which Mum dubbed Darvaza Crater in deference to the burning crater formed when, while drilling for natural gas in 1971, the Soviets tapped a massive gas cavern that subsequently collapsed (drill rig and all).  Concerned about the discharge of poisonous gases the geologists set the pit on fire, thinking it would burn itself out in a matter of days.  Forty-two years later the crater is still burning and has become popularly known as 'The Door to Hell'...which is where this cocktail belongs!


After the first sip it was clear it needed...er...something, but even dosing it with copious amounts of sugar syrup only made it register on our rating scale, but certainly not move up it!

Rating (out of 5):

Pel'Mani 4.5/5

Darvaza Cocktail 0.5/5