Marcy told me that the cottage cheese cookies that I made for our dinner representing Turkmenistan were good enough to sell. The cookies are both unique and delicious and the businesses she runs are always successful, so I believe her. Here is the recipe: https://turkmenkitchen.com/en/2013/08/27/cottage-cheese-cookies/
Before we ate the cookies, we had a full Turkmen meal inspired by this recipe blogger: https://turkmenkitchen.com/en/. I made a chopped summer salad, red lentil soup, and a fruit salad with pomegranate, pears, and mint; Andrea made mushroom patties, both vegetarian and meat pies, and vegetarian lamb stew; Marcy made squash patties; Perry made lamb stew and vermicelli pudding. Shasten, Kaden, Mike, Bernie, Elise, and Steven joined us for this feast to finish off 2022 and it was truly one of the best meals we have made.
Books for Turkmenistan are a challenge to find, but the Los Angeles County Library has three downloadable books by Ak Welsapar: The Tale of Aypi, Death of the Snake Catcher, and The Revenge of the Foxes. I read the short stories in Death of the Snake Catcher and was treated to magical realism and local color.
For some poetry, scroll down on this page about Magtymguly Pyragy, the father of Turkmen literature: https://museumstudiesabroad.org/magtymguly-pyragy-turkmen-nation/#Who_is_Magtymguly
For an outside view of this country that admits very few tourists, see:
· Drew Binsky’s positive and fun Turkmenistan video log: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nSoQt9LAGg
· Paul Theroux’s more pessimistic 2007 article in The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/05/28/the-golden-man
· The second half of the Dark Tourist episode on “The Stans” on Netflix
· The Turkmenistan episode of Geography Now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ljMlfC3kUw
In these music videos from Turkmenistan, the first shows off the country and the other two are popular music from the top of the charts this week:
· Amalia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTYjoLdze08&list=PLMmVJHHEJ4284a_6kTHo5nirtPOvl7QJF&index=9
· Abadan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrodJc4nm_Y&list=PLMmVJHHEJ4284a_6kTHo5nirtPOvl7QJF&index=17
Here are some fun thing to do in Turkmenistan from Atlas Obscura: https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/turkmenistan
I would love to go! I hope for a time when broad travel gives us new perspectives. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Turkmenistan and throughout the world.
Photo Credit: Ybrayym Esenov https://unsplash.com/photos/eiwVOa9zb10
Comments