Among the Kyrgyz, dishes are not served one after another as in Europe: the dastorkon is laid out—the large cloth spread directly on the yurt floor or on a low table—where everything arrives at once. Tea and breads, golden boorsok, dried cheeses and sweets are already there when the boiled meat is brought; kumis is passed from hand to hand. It is an edible geography of the steppe where each guest serves themselves according to their rank and appetite, and where hospitality (myikmandyk) is measured by the abundance offered to the traveler.

The soul of this nomadic cuisine lies in the fermentation of milk. Kumis churned in the saba (the smoked leather churn), balls of kurut dried in the sun: the Kyrgyz people learned to transform the milk of their herds into living drinks and reserves that last through winter. It is the sparkling sourness and the salty edge of worked milk that marks all these dishes.