You need to be so careful buying milk here in Kazakhstan. If you put it in tea/coffee, or cooking food, it might not be so apparent, but for any drinkers of milk, or breakfast cereal lovers, the milk takes a while to get used to.
I might just be hypersensitive to the smells/tastes (I worked in a dairy for a while), but a lot of milk tastes like it has gone off, the minute you open the carton/bag. (Who the hell thought a bag was a sensible container for milk!) As an example, I went shopping yesterday, and thought I’d try a couple different brands of milk, as the only ‘good’ source of milk was out of stock, again. I got a bag of normal milk, and a carton of UHT (long life), thinking it would be a safe bet. I don’t like the taste of UHT so much, but I thought of the two, at least one would be usable.
So, I got home, and thought about making a milk shake, and tested the ‘normal’ milk. Euuuuuurgh! It tasted like it had been left open in the sun for a few days. Oh well, no loss, threw it down the loo, and went to the UHT – best before date had 4 months to go, and it stated it could be stored at 0 – 30 degrees centigrade, prior to opening. It was worse, far worse – the milk had completely separated into a watery liquid, and some clotted fat floating around.
So, the moral of the story is, ummmm, well not sure – either don’t ever work in a dairy prior to visiting Kazakhstan, or maybe it is try to hold your nose whilst drinking milk over here, or maybe just give it up for a while :>
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UPDATE: Irina bought some more milk from a different shop on the way home, same brand, same type, and it tastes fine. Corn flakes, milk shakes and Angel Delights (mum bought some over for us) are now back on the menu :> :>
February 29th, 2008 7:45 pm
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