Kalash cuisine facts for kids

Kalash cuisine is all about the yummy traditional foods and drinks made by the Kalash people. They also use ideas from local Pakistani cuisine. Many of the foods they eat, like apricots, grapes, mulberries, walnuts, and wheat, are grown right in their beautiful valleys.

Traditional Kalash Foods and Drinks

The Kalash people have many special dishes that have been passed down through generations. These foods often use ingredients found in their valleys.

Tasty Kalash Breads

Breads are a very important part of Kalash meals. They come in many shapes and sizes, often made with walnuts!

• Bilili: This is a super popular bread! It's made from a batter mixed with walnuts and cooked on a pan.
• Jã'u: A thick bread that's stuffed with walnuts, and sometimes even cheese! It's baked right next to a warm fire.
• Kurau: This bread is made from flour, grape juice (called "wine" here, but it's just the juice!), and walnuts.
• Capoti: A thick bread made from dough that's left to sit for a while to get extra flavor.
• Pes' sali au: A big bread made from wheat or corn. It's eaten with a thick walnut butter called gaz'agaz'i. This bread is often given to men working hard in the fields.
• Tewreshak: A Kalash bread that's topped with melted clarified butter and salt.
• Tasil'i: A flat, round bread that doesn't use yeast. It's usually made from corn or wheat flour batter and cooked on a curved griddle. A special version, tasil'i parat'ha alo, has clarified butter and is very moist.
• T'iki: This bread is deep-fried in oil, making it crispy and delicious.
• Mos au (Meat Bread): Small pieces of meat and ground walnuts are mixed with sour pomegranate juice and coriander. This mix is put into dough and baked until firm, then finished cooking under hot ashes.
• Mand'awarwac' (Eagle Bread): A large, round loaf of wheat bread with a hawk or eagle design on it. It's eaten during the winter festival called 'cawmos'. People believe this bread is very pure.
• Shurukut'ulak: A round bread stuffed with crushed walnuts and a pretty scalloped edge. A bride makes this bread for her first visit back to her parents' home after getting married.
• T'at'ori: A thick bread filled with walnuts, roasted in hot coals. It's made from dough, not batter like the similar tasil'i.

Delicious Kalash Cheeses

The Kalash people also make many kinds of cheese, often from goat or cow milk.

• Gulak: These are round balls of cottage cheese.
• Amishtyonu: A cheese dish made from sacõ' (a type of cheese) topped with hot butter.
• Kuind'a: A strong, aged type of c'as'a (a kind of cottage cheese).
• Kil'a': A tasty, possibly sour, cheese made using rennet (something that helps milk curdle).
• Katak c'as'a ('New c'as'a'): This cottage cheese is made from the milk of a goat or cow that has just given birth. They make it for about four or five days after the animal gives birth. If a baby goat is born, only men can eat the cheese from that special milk. If a baby cow is born, both men and women can eat it.
• Sacõ': A type of cheese similar to c'as'a. Sacõ' is made by boiling buttermilk, while c'as'a is made directly from milk. The watery part left over is often given to dogs.
• Tsikir: Another type of cheese.
• Pandir: A type of aged cheese.
• Doa: A cake of cheese that is considered very pure and holy. It's a kind of c'as'a 'cottage cheese' made during the harvest festival 'ucaw' and the spring festival 'zhoshi'. It uses all the milk collected in one or two days during these festivals. Because it's holy, only men are allowed to eat it.

Other Special Kalash Foods

Beyond breads and cheeses, the Kalash enjoy other unique treats.

• Rhuta jã' (Coated Walnuts): A special treat where walnuts are covered in a mix of grape juice and mulberry flour.
• Sonabanci: A mix of ground walnuts and mulberries.
• Jã'gai: This is walnut butter, usually a thin mix. It's made from cracked and mashed walnuts mixed with water, cheese, and salt. There's also a thicker version called gaz'agaz'i.
• Sat'uk (Apple Sauce): A sauce made from ground, dried apples.