I should write a fuller description of our animal sacrifice, but this is the fifth internet cafe I walked into before I could find a connection, it's crazy slow, and the keyboard is wonky.
But! This weekend was so, so fun. I missed the actual killing of the lamb because I was late getting to the dacha, but I did learn a lot about how to clean intestines. Then we ate and ate and ate and ate. First we cooked kurdak on an open fire--the sheep's neck and ribs plus onions and potatoes. We ate a full meal of that and various salads and my cupcakes and truffles. Then, a few hours later, we ate the intestines, which had been braided with the lungs and boiled, plus the stomach, which was stuffed with liver and rice. Then, a few hours later, we ate the meal that was the main part of the ritual, besh barmak, which one eats with one's hands. Everyone gets a part of the meat based on one's age and rank (everyone got to learn that I was the oldest person there) and you have to take a bite off the bone, and then get all the meat and fat off the bone and put it on a plate of noodles with gravy made from boiling the meat. Then you eat it with your five fingers. Then we all gave our wishes and blessings for the friend who was leaving.
After that, which was finished up by around 10 or 11 at night, we were allowed to consume alcohol. A couple of people found a store to buy cognac, but it was really nasty, so we all just drank tea and went to bed. We managed to fit 10 people into the one tiny bedroom of the dacha. I even got my own bunk. The next morning most people ate leftover meat, but I couldn't stomach any more mutton and ate kasha with fruit instead. Then back to the city and some sleep, because everyone in the room with me turned out to be a REALLY LOUD BREATHER, so I had been up all night.
I couldn't fit all the cupcakes in my bag with me, so I'm bringing the leftovers tonight to the house where most of the people involved with the sacrifice live (the number and names of the people who live there are constantly rotating, so it's very confusing to people like me who only drop by occasionally). Yay for cupcakes!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
that's a lot of mutton!
How does lung taste anyway?
Ooh, today is Guy Fawkes Day in England, where they burn a Catholic in effigy. I guess GF was a traitor, too, but whatevs. In any case, there is no bonfire here in York because of safety hazards (?), and so I would like to sign up for your horse sacrifice right this instant, as I keenly feel the lack of ritual pyromania.
Post a Comment