A year ago, I wrote about a couple of interesting situations involving food. Most of the situations and foods I described back then I have gotten used to over the year and even currently enjoy (I think they call this "cultural adaptation"). However, there is one situation I don't want to have anything to do with ever again. I was referring to this in particular:
"Drinking "deer's blood" mixed with vodka. One day, some relatives came "ghosting" at my host family's house. They brought along a green bottle filled with some reddish liquid and asked if I would try it. As is my policy to try everything once, I gave it a go. It was slightly salty, and had a vodka aftertaste. It wasn't bad, but not that good, and reminded me of the taste in my mouth whenever I bite my tongue. The next day, I asked my host sister what it was. She said that it was deer's blood mixed with vodka, and they drink it because an old Kazakh legend says it will make people strong. I'm still not sure if this is true, because every Kazakh person I've asked says that it's true, and every person who is not Kazakh has never heard of it. Either way, I have not seen it again.”
While hanging in the mountains above Almaty last Sunday, a fellow volunteer, Melanie, told me that her friend found such a drink explained in a travel book. I did some looking online and found this article in the Chicago Tribune:
Please excuse me while I freak out.
2 comments:
gosh. did NOT need to read that while eating breakfast...
Kyle -- that sounds DISgusting! But good for you for trying it (kudos); and how many other people can say that they have had vodka and deer blood? Molodets!
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