For my first story for the BBC, I revisited the sour, salty cheese I used to decline as a kid.

As I wrote this story I learned how much it means to nomadic people and the efforts to bring Qurt to mainstream supermarket shelves. https://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20210426-qurt-a-kazakh-cheese-of-resilience?ocid=ww.social.link.twitter

The origin of this fermented cheese is the road itself.

As nomads journeyed across the steppe, the galloping motion of the horse gave a churning effect to the milk carried inside a vessel called Torsyk.

Photo courtesy of Aigerim Musagazhinova

Separated into curds, the liquid was then drained, dried and lightly salted. Rolled into small balls, Qurt packs all the nutrients of the liquid dairy product into a solid, portable food.

My parents, bless them, bought every kind of Qurt they could find at their supermarket in Astana. They tried each one and reported back with their thoughts on texture, salt levels, fat content. They truly believe they are my reporting assistants and I love them for that.

They are thoroughly stocked up on vacuum sealed Qurt and Soviet era books on Kazakh cuisine