The Green Bazaar, Almaty Kazakhstan

On my way to Kazakhstan, my already excited mind was pretty much occupied with the anticipation of finally getting closer to this one particular place in Almaty. You can say that the Green Bazaar almost turned my cerebrum green before I even reached there. From all that I have researched before my trip and my indispensable habit of visiting markets in foreign countries, the Green Bazaar has quite some treasure in store for me. I found basically most of the food in Kazakh that I had my mind on can be found here. 

The Green Bazaar

The Green Bazaar opens at 9am and being the overkeen traveller I am, I was around the area by 8am. I took the opportunity to visit the Zenkov Cathedral a.k.a. Ascension Cathedral while waiting for the stalls to greet good morning. 

When the shutters rolled up, my eyes rolled wide with them -starting with honey stall!

The first stall that greeted me was a honey stall!

Meat stalls are hygienic and minimal odour detected. It is nowonder as I found out post-visit that it is one of the cleanest markets in whole of Central Asia!

Sheep head and brains not for the faint hearted

Salty cheese and milk candy store that I have been waiting to visit

With no signage and scarce English, determination was all I had to lead me to kumis (fermented horse milk) hidden behind the salted cheese piles. I noticed some white liquid a seller was stirring and asked what it was. To my relief, he could manage to tell me "horse milk".

Sour was the first taste that hit my taste buds. I thought all horse milk tasted sour until I found out that kumis is fermented- a nomadic way to preserve food. The consistency though, was lighter than cow milk. With that, fresh horse milk was added to my "to-eat" list.

I could not find any fresh horse milk but came across fermented camel's milk instead. How can I possibly skip something so unobtainable in South East Asia. I bought a cup for RM5 without a thought. As any fermented drink, it tasted sour as well but a little thicker with some chalky and fishy notes. 

Horse meat is one of the real reasons I came to Central Asia for. Hunting it in Green Bazaar was the right decision. Generally priced RM90 per kg, the horsemeat here are ready to eat. The seller was kind enough to let me sample some slices. I took home the salt flavoured one at last for my family to try. 

I found a seller who speaks English and her explaination gave more clarity about the flavours and price

Sampling horse meat for the first time

As Kazakh is land locked, fish is not exactly an easy supply. I presume most of the fish here are preserved for this reason. 

Preserved fruits and nuts

At the Green Bazaar also you can find decent local dishes. Rice, noodles and manti are all found here. 

Local dishes at the bazaar

Okhroshka...has made it to one of my favourites

Trying different dishes at the Green Bazaar

Noodle soup with horse meat

Manti dumplings- Kazakhs and other central asians must have known that other than the filling, the dumplings are just as good as how thin the skin is, like how the Chinese makes it.

Lagman is tomato based noodle dish

Having lagman at the upper level of Green Bazaar