Shorpo. In my memories
Living outside your country brings a lot of nostalgic mood. This story on telling story about soup made me remember not only Kyrgyz cuisine but also my friends, interviews with people, music and my country. Being a foreigner is also means of reflection on yourself in your native country. I narrated the story as an audio, and I knew, which music I would use for background, Esimde — famous composition by Atai Ogonbaev. Esimde in Kyrgyz — I remember or In my memories. So stories on shorpo one by one come to my mind.
Shorpo — nomads soup
My favorite soup is shorpo. This soup is from Kyrgyz cuisine and simply consists of boiled lamb or beef and some veggies. It could be onion and carrots with some spices like black pepper. I love shorpo!
To be vegetarian in Kyrgyzstan is practically impossible, because from ancient times the main part of the kyrgyz dishes were products of home animals: sheep, cows, yaks, horses, camels.
The secret of this soup in how you boil the lamb. Sieving the dirt on the surface of the boiling meat after few minutes will make the soup clean and clear. Then you add onion, carrot and just before serving, I usually add fresh dill or green onion.
Shorpo is also a part of big and main dish of Kyrgyz cuisine — Beshbarmak.
That’s why you should come to Osh and eat shorpo
There was a well-known comedian, nicknamed Shorpo, which he got after his song which had “that’s why you should come to Osh and eat shorpo!” as a refrain.
Osh is an ancient city and the south capital of Kyrgyzstan. So this song became not only a creative nickname which made the comedian famous and but also served as an advertisement for Osh, as a city.
Some years ago, I had an interview with Shorpo, the comedian. He passed away 2 years ago. The title of the interview was “Laugh is immortal”. Here’s an excerpt of the interview where he gave an explanation of his name.
Me: “After the hit “Eat shorpo! (Shorpo ichkile in Kyrgyz) the culinary name became your nickname”.
Shorpo: At the beginning of my career this name was not very attractive. But now, if you do not call me like this I would be offended. The history of my artistic name dates back to the late 80s. We were on tour and went to a restaurant and on the menu, there was nothing except shorpo! Even there was no bread. In general, we had nothing to eat. A curious idea turned out. After we got the idea, we made a full show with the song “Shorpo ichkile!”.
Me: Is there anything like having too much humor?
Shorpo: It’s like eating. You need to add pepper in a way that breaks your appetite. But do not overdo it!
Here is part of his concert where he sang the song which made him famous.
Contentious soup
Living in the student’s apartment and in other conditions and in different time and country brought my memories of 15 years ago when I was a young student in the center of capital Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) where I lived literally in one room apartment in the hostel. It was totally different conditions and very difficult time for my country and my family too.
We lived in one room, all fourgirls and we usually go to the market to buy food, then we cooked in turns.
That day one of my roommates was on duty for cooking, she came earlier between breaks and cooked soup shorpo from meat and vegetables. Then she left. Thereafter another roommate came with her friend during break just to change and to have a rest a little bit. She saw the soup and because she had a guest and saw ready soup she suggested to eat soup. The girl, who cooked arrived by this time and when she saw that the soup had been finished, she asked how come? The guest felt bad because she’s in between two fires and she also ate out of the soup. She didn’t want to leave the tensed atmosphere with two friends arguing over ‘common soup’. In Kyrgyz culture it is not appropriate to create a scandal about dinner or food. But my roommate, who ate soup exploded and spoke out what she thought about her and that soup situation.
I came after classes and found this situation. The girl, who cooked the soup, offered to cook again, and our guest apologized again for the soup. Of course we ate that day, but for a long time my two roommates did not speak to each other, I think, about half of the year. You can imagine how difficult it was to live in a situation where two of your friends are not speaking to each other in the same room where they eat, sleep, study and hang out.
This story always serves as a memory of how poor we were as students at that time, such that a small portion of soup was so important that we quarreled because of it. Now, I and the girl who ate soup and her friend, all remember this story with smile, but at that time it was not so funny!
Photo credit on soundcloud to Arthoum under CC license.
Tech support — Claude Kabengera
Support in edition — Adetola Kayode.
