September 9th + 11th, 2021

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Somehow, I managed to find the best Texas barbecue of my life in Bishkek. We happened by the place by accident – it’s located on the side of a crappy strip mall – and decided to give it a try. What the hell, we thought. Well, it turned out to be absolutely excellent. The meat is all perfectly cooked, the barbecue sauce is flavorful, and the onion rings are shockingly good, too. The chef and owner, who calls himself simply Kekeyev (no first name), apparently visited Texas years ago and fell entirely in love with the food, so decided to make his own place happen back home, slow cookers, a specific Kyrgyz equivalent to mesquite wood, and all the other fixings. When he heard that we were Americans, he busted out his cowboy hat and bandanna for pictures. He also interviewed us about how we liked the food in order to post it on his restaurant’s Instagram. So if you’re ever interested in Halal Texas Barbecue in Kyrgyzstan, you know just where to go!

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Then on this past Saturday, we discovered that a Craft Brew Festival was going to be taking place about a 20 minute bus ride south of us in the city. Two of us being Portlanders, we just knew we had to check it out. There were crowd events and live music on a little stage to one side, then several craft breweries from the whole CIS region in attendance. Some of the beers were definitely to my liking, as was the homemade mead one of them brought. However, there was also this absolutely tasteless (in more ways than one) Trump themed beer that I just figured needed to be brought to the world’s attention. I also, perhaps unfortunately, had the chance to try roasted crickets. Even more unfortunately, they were actually pretty good once you got past the whole cricket thing. Would I order them on purpose rather than as a free sample? Probably not. Still though, definitely not the worst thing I’ve eaten here in terms of enjoyment, not by a long shot. And, like most good nights at a beer festival should end, we finished the evening in a police station!

Calm down, Mom – luckily for me at least, the police station was not because we were in trouble with the law. Poor Kathy managed to get her phone – with driver’s license in the case – pickpocketed on the Marshrutka (a Soviet-style unofficial transport van that follows bus patterns – usually a pretty safe mode of transport as long as you watch your pockets) and we ended up going to the police station to file an official statement. We didn’t expect to get her phone or ID back, but the official police statement allows the U.S. Embassy to get to work on replacing her ID. As of now (the 14th), no news on locating the lost items. I’m definitely keeping my valuables even closer than before, though.