Don`t leave Central Asia without trying fermented horse milk

I am honored to have had the privilege of watching a horse get milked. 

Kumis is a traditional drink of the Central Asian Steppes, a gorgeously spacious region which looks like this:

Speckled throughout the grassland were traditional huts known as Yurts. 

 

Many travelers venture to the region to experience a homestay in these yurts, which are often considered a symbolic cultural embodiment of Central Asia.    

While staying with local rural ranchers, one may have the opportunity to try traditional cuisine, especially Kumis AKA, horse milk alcohol. 

Kumis tasted exactly like Imagined it would; strong, gamey, funky and bad. The taste really had quite a kick (pun intended).  

But that`s just my opinion. I also have spoken to a couple others who have tried it and said it wasn`t bad.

Although I didn`t care for it, I was able to drink an entire bowl of the frothy fermented liquid so I must say it wasn`t super horrible. I`ve certainly had worse.   

Bear in mind though, I had mine very fresh and local. Not the kind sold in the supermarket. I also stayed in a Yurt which was particularly off the beaten path, therefore its possible that what I consumed was particularly pungent and authentic. 

 Although the entire area is relatively local, advertised as authentic and not flooding with tourists compared to more conventional destinations like Thailand for example, there is still a significant number of travelers and the buses and taxis are more likely than not to drop you off nearby clusters of elegant, slightly more expensive Yurts which are used to accommodating foreigners and profiting by doing so. 

 I recommend walking away from the more concentrated clusters of Yurts where locals are particularly determined to usher you in and far out into the wild grass ocean and approaching ranchers who will be more than happy to offer a cheaper and perhaps more authentic homestay.  

Kumis is not the only type of alcohol enjoyed as evident by these empty vodka bottles: 

Although the spacious scenery is beautiful, there`s not much to do and the locals love to drink alcohol. 

 

The area holds many types of livestock including cows, however, horse milk is still in higher demand compared to the conventual milk from cows. Typical yurts had large barrels of horse milk fermenting its way into kumis. It`s hard to understand the appeal but the locals absolutely loved the stuff slamming down bowl after bowl of the funky frothy drink.