This evening we went with Assel and Walton to the roof terrace section of the Sattay restaurant. Although you do pay a little more than some places, it wasn’t quite in the range of the German style restaurant we went to mid-week, luckily. I had some Bousaky as a starter (a roll that tastes a little like a doughnut, without the sugar added), a kebab (Sashlique) with chips, and some profiteroles for dessert. Unfortunately, they were too tasty to pause and grab a photo, sorry, but you can see the edible bowl they came in at least…
One thing that caught our eyes was the difference in prices between the English menu, and the Russian menu. Being inquisitive, we asked the waitress why foreigners were expected to pay more at this establishment. The reason given was that you received larger portions for the more expensive (English language) versions of the items. Having seen how much a Kazakh man can put away in an evening, especially if the food is required to soak up a good amount of vodka, I remain unconvinced. See the pictures below for an example of how the chips cost more on one menu than the other.
The music they played was refreshingly non-pop, and the service level was good. Once we had finished our meal, and putting the world to rights over some vodka, we headed back to Walton and Assel’s place, where we had some popcorn, sweets and a little more vodka. (See the last photo below, this vodka has garnered quite a reputation internationally, apparently.)
Aug 26 2007
Sattay With Friends
Aug 23 2007
My Very Own Restaurant
OK, not quite, but the name of the place we went to last night is not a million miles from my surname…
?????????? which (very) roughly equates to Meramhana, which is pretty damn close to Merriman ๐
Anyway, we met up with Walton and Assel, who we had not seen since he went away to Kyrgyzstan with Tom to help teach some Afghan teenagers.
The last time we tried to go to this restaurant, the whole place was closed to the public, as there were some government big wigs in attendance at someone important’s birthday. That probably should have given us a small clue as to the price range, but we ploughed on regardless… Whilst we waited outside for Walton to arrive, I took a quick shot of the patio seating, though this now being the end of August, no Kazakhs were in view, as it is too cold to sit outside. Apparently.
When we went in, the interior looked quite impressive, and the staff were actually pleasant to deal with; none of the oft-encountered ‘I am doing you a favour serving you’ sort of attitude. I had a nice fried cheese starter, and a pepper steak with chips. Sorry, that should have been a PEPPER steak with chips. (The amount of pepper corns I scraped off the meat would have lasted me a couple of years in a pepper grinder at home.) Walton and Ira had the same dish, though Irina has mushrooms as her garnish. Even Ira noted that the sauce on the meat was really quite hot. Half through the meal I literally had tears coming from my eyes, and this was after shaving the top, bottom and sides of the meat, to try and minimize the strength of the pepper sauce. I enjoyed it, but would not recommend it in a restaurant that was not air conditoned ๐
Please excuse the messy plate – I forgot to take a shot until about 1/2 through the meal. Whilst we ate, there was a live band playing downstairs, who were pretty talented, even if a little loud. The violinist had a stronger talent for playing her electric violin than singing, but their repertoire involved a wide selection of Russian and English songs, that did not exclusively involve female lead vocals, so overall, their input was most appreciated.
So, we finished off the meal with a nice dollop or two of ice cream, and said our goodbyes. It was really good to have the four of us back together again, and to hear (a little) about Walton’s time at the camp.
[EDIT]
Ooops, apparently ?????????? is actually the Kazakh word for restaurant… not the name of the establishment itself. That is now three words of Kazakh I know ๐
Aug 18 2007
Tom And Walton
Have finished the summer camp for Afghani children over in Kyrgyzstan. To catch up with what has been going on, head on over to LifeOf2Me. We were hoping to catch up with Tom before he heads off to his next adventure, but at the very least we will be able to hear from Walton how things went over there, and if there were any stories that could not be published ๐
Anyway, wherever you are right now Tom, hope life is going well, and has a little excitement in store still, and to Walton, WELCOME HOME, see you soon.
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Aug 16 2007
Aunty Sveta, Sasha And A Golden Roundabout
Last weekend Ira’s Aunt Sveta and her grand daughter Sasha came over to celebrate Ira’s Mum’s birthday. On the Saturday morning, as we were all in the car sorting out flowers, presents and food, Ira’s Dad took us over to a monument his company built. When the sun is shining, it is truly spectacular. The whole structure is covered in gold leaf, and really does sparkle when clouds do not dominate the sky. Anyway, enough of the text, onto the photos…
Ira, Walton, Alex and I all originally saw this statue/monument object just prior to going to the horse event around Astana Day. I’m glad to say no one seems to have tried to chip off the gold since then ๐
I meant to add this earlier, if you want to see an interesting, (in)famous roundabout, check out this Google Maps satellite photo of the Magic Roundabout in Swindon, UK. You end up going the wrong way around the central roundabout!
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Aug 14 2007
Kokpar, QI And Apples
Ever on the look out for mentions of all things Kazakh in the popular media, I came across the following episode of QI last week.
For those who have not yet seen this comedy quiz show, the idea is that Stephen Fry, as the quiz master, asks questions, and the panel of comedians/actors/celebrities have to answer questions. Alan Davies is the permanent contestant, who can be relied upon to supply obvious, but in fact wrong, answers. Whenever anyone supplies such an answer, a siren is played, and points are deducted.
In this particular clip of QI taken from series 1, episode 11, we have the two people mentioned above, as well as Bill Bailey (a comic genius), Linda Smith and Richard E. Grant. Click the video below to watch the clip.
So, in case you missed it, apparently apples actually originate from Kazakhstan, and the fine goat-carcass polo game of Kokpar is mentioned. See my previous post (A Day At The Races) for the last mention of this game, when AlexC, myself, Ira and Walton all went to watch it at a local racetrack. Oh, and before any smart alec informs that Almaty is a refernce to the apples, it apparently is NOT!
Aug 04 2007
Great Find In The Park
This evening, Ira and I went to find a new cafe to eat at, in Astana Park. Her parents had told us about a place that did good sashliq, and was not too pricey. When I discovered which one it was, I had my doubts straight away; a couple of months back we went in there, and walked out straight away, as the air was incredibly stuffy. Luckily the evening was still warm, so we plonked ourselves in their outdoor seating area.
The food was good, I had beef sashliq, which for once was cooked properly all the way through, but still retained some juiciness and flavour. Anyway, to the next person that comes out to visit us, we now have another local cafe/restaurant that we will be happy to take you to ๐
PS Walton/Asel, if you read this, we may just have found a new Cafe Shimkent… it was a little more pricey, but the surroundings certainly make up for it, and the food was great.
PPS Walton, the vodka was cheap ๐
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Jun 19 2007
Is It A Bird? Is It Superman? Nope – Its A Helicopter
Weekend just gone, when we had Lorsha, Walton et al over, they bought a new toy they picked up in China – a remote control helicopter!
I was completely unable to control it, other than flying up and down, whenever I tried to make it go in any other direction, it just seemed to spin round and around. Anyway, it was fun to have a go, and quite impressive just to watch it in the hands of more experienced pilots.
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Jun 13 2007
Picnic In The Park
We recently went to a restaurant in the park near us (named, with some unique inspiration, Astana Park) with Walton and Assel. The place is based around the theme of a famous Russian film set in the desert, hopefully Ira will be able to inform me of its name in the morning.
Ira and I had not been there before, so we didn’t know what to expect. The food was good, the vodka must have been OK, as I forgot I took the following picture ๐
When Alex gets over here in a week and a half, I’m hoping we can return the restaurant again. The service was a little slow, and it was yet another example of a place in Kazakhstan where ‘starters’ and ‘main courses’ arrive in a random pattern, but the waitress was pleasant in her attitude, when Ira and I went back there last week.
By the way, the post title is a reference to an annual event back in Cheltenham, where people went to Pitville park, with a picnic, and listened to some bands play…
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Jun 08 2007
The Dragon Fart T-Shirt Has Arrived
As modelled by Pete.
For anyone who hasn’t yet visited, go and check out Tom’s online shop NOW. You will find a whole range of original t-shirts and other items, all designed by Tom.
TCat Designs is run by Tom Toomey, of The Life of 2ME blog. He is now back in America, having lived here in Astana for a short while. He and Walton are hopefully going to be in Kyrgyzstan this summer, running a camp for children from Afghanistan.
Nope, this isn’t sponsored, Tom is a friend, and no money was exchanged for this post.
May 14 2007
Went To Chelsea Again
On Saturday night. Unfortunately Walton and Assel had a previous engagement, but Ira and I still had a good time. I ventured beyond my normal potato skins for a started, and had a tomato soup. Over here in Kazakhstan, soup is not soup unless it looks like water, has a few real vegetables in it, and a fair dollop of meat. Unfortunately, my ideal soup is basically creamy flavoured water. Unless it is cream of tomato or cream of chicken, I’m not too interested basically. Anyway, previously, I’d always said no the the idea of having a $12 soup of tomatoes as a starter, but as we were celebrating my first month of income from web sites in a while, I decided to try it out. Combined with a chocolate milk shake and a Baileys.
Then I had something labelled as lasagne. It certainly had meat, tomato paste/sauce, pasta and cheese, but it wasn’t quite arranged the same way. Anyway, it was too big for me to finish, wasn’t what I was expecting, but could have been a lot worse. The fact that it was quite so filling meant I had to skip the anticipated apple pie and ice cream, so I drowned my ‘sorrows’ with a few more vodkas.
Anyway, we’ll hopefully continue our Saturday night out pattern with Walton & Assel next week.
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