Ask for favorites, ask for recommendations.

A group of people laughed, came to the adobe house, and smelled the fragrant smell of mutton, the rich meat fragrance wafted over the grassland, the smell of grass and meat added the breath of fireworks to the vast grassland.

The mutton had been slaughtered by the old man and boiled in a cauldron with the clear water of the roadside.

From the aroma of the meat, Miao Miao knew that this was the most traditional, simple, and original stewed mutton of the Kazakh people.

Only put an appropriate amount of salt, do not put any other condiments, sheep belly, sheep liver, sheep's head, hooves and tender mutton stewed in one pot.

After washing their hands in front of the adobe house, a few people walked into the yurt room and sat cross-legged on a small wooden kang shaped like a tatami mat.

Before the meat was cooked, Yerboli's wife had already set up a small long coffee table on the wooden kang, on which the main thing was naan, milk tea, milk lumps, dried fruits, ghee, milk lumps, etc., which were made of milk, and the guests were invited to enjoy them slowly.

When visiting Kazakh homes, men and women sit separately, and men and women sit in different positions, and men generally sit cross-legged.

Women sit on their knees with their buttocks at the base of their bent legs, and women generally sit on their knees or on their sides.

In the arrangement of seating, the most important or distinguished guest sits on the left, facing right in order of status or seniority, and the host generally sits cross-legged on the right.

Among Miao Miao and others, Yu Supu, a cadre of the township veterinary station, was the oldest and the oldest, and he sat on the far left of the coffee table, followed by Han Cheng, Bahati and Miao Miao.

Miao Miao's far right seat is the old man Halik, and his son Yeerboli sits opposite Miao Miao, at the bottom of the coffee table, so that it is convenient to pour wine, serve tea to the guests, and do a good job.

Before the lamb was cooked, Yerboli took out his dombula and began to play and sing, a two-stringed plucked instrument made of pine wood.

Yerboli took the dombula in his arms, pressed the strings with his left hand, plucked it with his right hand, and his thick thumb and index finger played one or the other, or two and two with two picks, and under his skillful plucking, the dombula played a pleasant sound, like the murmuring of spring water on the grassland, the crisp song of birds, the jubilant flock of sheep and the hoof of a horse galloping......

Dongbula playing and singing is the favorite art performance form of the Kazakh people, and after Yerboli finished playing and singing a song, Miao Miao and others responded with warm applause.

According to custom, when it came time to tell the story and amuse it, the old host, old man Khalik, happily told the guests the story of his youth.

It turned out that the old man was an old ranger of the forestry system in Ningxi City, and he had assisted the forestry police station in arresting several batches of thieves who went up the mountain to steal snow lotus.

After listening to the old man's witty stories in the past, Miao Miao knew that the rare and exotic snow lotus was grown in a weak ecological environment above 3,600 meters above sea level and inaccessible to people, and it was a kind of women's medicine that was difficult to find.

While the gentlemen were talking and laughing, Yerboli's wife brought two large plates of steaming "Beshbarmak" (i.e., finger mutton), containing sheep's head, legs, ribs, etc.

Yeerboli presented the small dagger that cut the meat to Yu Supu with both hands, and Yu Supu took some meat from the plate and invited the housewife to eat it as a sign of respect and gratitude, otherwise it would be considered rude, Alimujiang's daughter-in-law was so shy that she took the mutton and thanked her, and went out with a red face to get busy.

The Kazakh people are very particular about eating mutton, different guests eat different parts of the sheep, and the older and distinguished guests eat the head and rump of the sheep.

Sons-in-law and daughters-in-law eat meat and breast meat with "bishi" (Ningxi vernacular, that is, joints on the leg of mutton), and children eat lamb ears and tongues.

According to the rules, the master Khalik and the most honored guest, Yusup, should first eat mutton liver and sheep's tail oil, and then eat mutton. The sheep's head is considered the best part and is placed on top of the plate to entertain the most noble guests.

Ali Mujiang made a "please eat the sheep's head" to Yu Supu's hands, Yu Supu used a dagger to cut a piece of meat on the sheep's face and put it in his mouth, and after chewing slowly, he picked up the sheep's head with both hands and asked Alimujiang to hand it over to the old master.

Halik took the sheep's head, skillfully cut off a piece of mutton ear meat with a dagger, handed it to Miao Miao beside him, and said with a smile: "Balangzi, be obedient, listen to your parents, listen to the words of **." ”

Miao Miao knew that this was a Kazakh custom, and the ears and tongue were eaten by young people or children, which meant obedience and good speech, so he respectfully took the ear meat with both hands and stuffed it into his mouth.

Then Halik cut off a piece of sheep's ear and handed it to Bahati, telling him to be obedient in Kazakh, which meant the same as for Miao Miao.

Halik cut off several pieces of meat from the sheep's face and handed them to Yusupu and Han Cheng to eat, and then he cut off two small pieces of the sheep's tongue and handed them to Miao Miao and Bahati respectively.

At this time, Ali Mujiang was not idle, he put some flesh and bone on each guest's small plate, and everyone let go of their hands and feet to gnaw.

Yerboli's wife boiled mutton in snow water flowing from the Wusun Mountains, and put some salt, the standard Kazakh mutton cooking method, the taste is very fragrant.

The mutton meat is tender, fat but not greasy, and the bone-related meat of a big fat mutton was quickly wiped out by everyone.

The next thing is to eat mutton without bones, drink mutton soup, no wine and no joy, wine and meat on the grassland like conjoined brothers do not separate for a moment, the host Yeerboli took out five bottles of Ningxi Tequ, high-concentration spirits.

He handed the first bottle of wine to his father, Khalik, and because of the pandemic, Yerboli abandoned the old practice of steppe herdsmen sharing a wine glass and drinking in turns, and today he put an empty wine glass in front of everyone.

Halik first brought himself a full glass of wine, then handed the bottle to his son, and filled the glasses in order of the older guests.

Halik lifted his glass and said words of blessing in Chinese, mainly around the epidemic to say some blessings "the epidemic is over, the people of the whole country are fine".

At the same time, he sincerely wished the great motherland prosperity and good health.

Miao Miao looked at the 70-year-old man, and actually drank 50 grams of wine in one go, and couldn't help but admire, and everyone drank it all.

When it came to the second round of wine, the old man Halik asked his son to fill the remaining liquor in the bottle for everyone, and for the second glass of wine, the old man proposed that the people of the whole country should be well-off in 2020, and then took the lead in drinking it all.

After the first bottle of wine was drunk, according to the rules of the Kazakh banquet, Yerboli handed a bottle of wine to Yusupu, and the right to speak in this bottle of wine was the distinguished guest Yusupu.

The second bottle of wine Yu Supu wished everyone happiness again, and brought two glasses of wine, and everyone drank it happily.

After the second bottle of wine was drunk, it was considered that the wine had passed the third round, and everyone's body bones were warm, so they sang and drank at the same time, Yeerboli played Dongbula, and Miao Miao let go of her throat and sang the song of the grassland.