Yakutian Traditional Food: raw horse meat, frozen fish and more!

Hi! Today we will visit one of the best traditional Yakutian restaurants, Chichurmuran, and we will show what we usually eat in the coldest city Yakutsk. This is traditional Yakutian hunting lodge. Yakutian men can't live without hunting. They usually build their own hunting lodge in the middle of the forest. This lodge is usually filled with stuffed animals to represent their trophies. According to our traditions, we worship and appreciate nature. At the start of the meal, we give traditional Yakutian pancakes to the fire as a tribute and blessing to the spirit of fire, which protects us and keeps us warm. Because of our cold climate in Yakutia, it's almost impossible to grow fruits and vegetables. Yakutian cuisine is made of dairy, meat, fish, and wild spurs. Meat and fish is often eaten raw in a lightly frozen state. One of the best known Yakutian dishes is stroganina, long thin slices of frozen arctic river fish. When it's time to slice, we hold this fish vertically and carve in long strokes using a traditional Yakutian knife. The taste is very soft, fresh, and frosty, and very nutritious. Another Yakutian delicacy is frozen raw fall meat and liver. The history of the Yakutian horse is inseparable to the history of the Yakutian people. Out of all types of meat, only fall is considerably suitable for eating raw. This has been an important dish, helping my ancestors to survive in these extreme conditions. One of the main dishes is the karaisi fish. It's one of my favorite Yakutian dishes. We usually fry it, and the most delicious, fatty, and nutritious part is the fish roe. For dessert, we eat kyrtya, which is made of whipped cream and frozen colberries. Yakutian people harvest wild berries during the short summer and freeze it to eat it during long and cold winters. An important dish of Yakutian festive table is salamat. It's made of butter and flour, similar to the sauce bechamel. It's usually eaten with bread, and it's the fattiest Yakutian dish, which helps us keep warm during our extremely cold winters. This Yakutian traditional drink, kumys, is fermented mare's milk. It has a unique sour taste with a slightly alcoholic punch. It's usually served cold in a traditional Yakutian cup.