Texts for reading Text 1 Kazakh cuisine

Traditional Kazakh cuisine revolves around muttonandhorse meatas well as variousmilk products. For hundreds of years, Kazakhs were herders who raised fat-tailed sheep, Bactrian camels, and horses, relying on these animals for transportation, clothing, and food. The cooking techniques and major ingredients have been strongly influenced by the nation’snomadicway of life. For example, most cooking techniques are aimed at long-termpreservation of food. There is large practice of salting and drying meat so that it will last, and there is a preference forsour milk, as it is easier to save in a nomadic lifestyle.

Meatin various forms has always been the primary ingredient of Kazakh cuisine, and traditional Kazakh cooking is based on boiling. Horse and mutton are the most popular forms of meat and are most often served in large uncut pieces, which have been boiled. Kazakhs cared especially for horses which they intended to slaughter-keeping them separate from other animals and feeding them so much that they often became so fat they had difficulty moving.

Common and traditional dishes

Besbarmak, a dish consisting of boiled horse or mutton meat, is the most popular Kazakh dish. It is also called “five fingers” because of the way it is eaten. The chunks of boiled meat are cut and served by the host in order of the guests’ importance. Besbarmak is usually eaten with a boiled pasta sheet and a meat both called shorpa,

and is traditionally served in Kazakh bowls called kese.

Manti, a very popular Kazakh dish, is a spiced mixture of ground lamb (or beef) spiced with black pepper, enclosed in a dough wrapper. Manti are cooked in a multi-level steamer and served topped with butter, sour cream, or onion sauce.

The introduction of flour to Kazakh cuisine brought about dishes such as baursak, shelpek. Baursak is made by frying dough balls, and shelpek is a flat cake made in a similar fashion.

Irimzhik is a cottage cheeseprocessed in the spring, made from boiled, unskimmed milk and added sour cream.Suzbe and katyk are strained and thickened sour milk. Koryktyk is a herdsman’s food, which is thickened milk made out on the steppe.

Shubat (fermented camel’s milk) and Kumys (fermented mare’s milk) are seen as good for one’s health and is imbibed often.

Text 2

When you walk into number 4 Walpole Street, Chester, in the North of England, you have to be careful you don’t fall over the mountain bikes, sports bags and various pieces of sports equipment all over the hall. The house is occupied by five sports science students from University College, Chester, who eat, live and breathe sport. They work hard to keep fit. Karl, the canoeist, describes a typical day: “In the morning, we go for a run before breakfast, and then we have lectures at college. Then we go running again and or swimming, and then a quick lunch. In the afternoons we do coaching to earn some extra money, and evenings are spent in the gym or playing football”.

All five boys are obviously fit. But who is the fittest? We asked them to do a series of tests to find out the answer.