A first look at Eateries for the Family…

Even though we have been in Astana for but only 3 months, I have been asked by several expat families where to go to for good food within the City. Whilst I am certainly not competent (as yet) to be a true blue food connoisseur, I do however know what’s good food and importantly, what our kids like. And I take my role of  CF&BO for the family quite seriously (aka Chief F&B 0fficer). Having a teenager and a toddler in tow makes restaurant selections a fascinating affair as you can well imagine.

Whilst the selection of international cuisine (Western or Asian) for those who wish for a “foreign” palette may not be as vast as those found in Almaty, suffice to say you will certainly be able to find some  to suit your taste buds and price points. As ye olde saying goes… “Good food ain’t necessarily cheap and cheap food ain’t necessarily good”.

As part of the experience of an expat living in Astana, there is nothing like having a feel of the local restaurants which are not hotel based. The following part of this write up highlights 5 places which have become a family fav for us. A very special shout out goes to Restaurant No 5 on the list. Enjoy the sharings.

 

1. Ali Baba – Uzbek Cuisine – Recommended
Family restaurant and toddler friendly

Over the summer months it has a great outdoor setting with tables or divans, for those wishing a laid back experience. Located just off the Ishim River, walking distance from the Congress Hall (your local landmark), it’s a fantastic place to spend a couple of hours relishing in good local Central Asian cuisine. Prompt and polite service with fast delivery post placing your order. A good variety of Uzbek food with a super variety of local brew, both alcho and non-alcho based. The English speaking staff is an absolute bonus. Has a little play ground on one end for the toddlers to keep themselves entertained.

The Entrance to the Restaurant

Ali Baba in his vase

Refreshing salad with goat cheese

Lamb kebab

Tender lamb and potato dish

2. Black Duck – Mediterranean Food with a duck speciality – Recommended
Family restaurant and toddler friendly

Good ambience with nice jazzy music playing the background. Attentive waiters, fast service and amazing food. A variety of dishes from pastas and risottos to pizzas but their house specialty is duck meat with lots of varieties to choose from. Whist I don’t view this place as fine dining per se, its layout is good, with not alot of ambient noise. Good place for lunch and dinner whether business or family related.

The duck with an orange sauce – signature dish of the restaurant

 

Mushroom risotto in a creamy sauce

Salad with pieces of tender duck breast

3. Chechil Pub – Bar and Restaurant – Recommended for the live band and great ambience
Couples restaurant for a good night out

Nice pub ambience. Clean and well presented. Has a good variety on the menu with a whole range of alcho drinks. The local beers on tap are quite refreshing I must say. The dance floor is packed when the live band plays. Does a variety of pieces from the oldies of the 90s to the more contemporary with a good selection of Russian and English songs.

Quite easy to find from the main road with good signage.

 

Great live band and a decent size dance floor

A good variety of bar based finger foods

Massive chicken sausage with mushrooms and potatoes

4. Provino – Food & Wine Bar – Recommended
Family restaurant and toddler friendly

Excellent range of wines from various countries. The selection of brandies and whiskies are equally good. Bright and chirpy ambience with a crew who know their wines and are more than adequately able to recommend a “type of drop” for the “type of food” that you have ordered for your meal. The range on the menu is good as well starting from the salads and Spanish hams to the mains. The food is typically of Mediterranean origin. Fresh and light and does, in no way give you that bloated feeling that you would traditionally  associate with a heavy pasta.
Easy to find and very prominently located adjacent to the Congress Hall in Astana. A great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon followed by a gentle stroll by the banks of Ishim River, which is located but a 15 minute walk away.

Fantastic drops of light spanish wines served by the glass or the bottle as you prefer

Homemade mushroom pasta

Seafood soup

Super refreshing olive, cheese and ham salad

5. Pane & Vino – Food and Wine Bar – Highly recommended
Family restaurant and toddler friendly

As you would expect from an Italian restaurant, an extremely good range of Italian wine. Extremely tastefully done décor with a nice warm ambient lights. The range of dishes on the menu is good with a truly authentic Italian touch. Very good range of starters, 1st and 2nd courses with a nice dolce range at the end, to complete your gastronomic experience at this quaint place. The restaurant boasts of having had the honour of hosting President Nazarbayev within several months of its opening. The owner Enrico Nappini, is a very amicable gentleman who freely mingles with his guests to provide that personal touch. And, in all honestly, it will be difficult not to get enthralled with his personal experiences and stories of setting up an Italian restaurant in the midst of Kazakhstan, an outstanding one at that.
Easy to find, its located along one of the main thoroughfares of the City, just off the diplomatic enclave.

A home made pasta with a gentle cream sauce that goes a long way to tickle the taste buds

Dessert with a variety to try from

A lemon tart to end the evening with that goes extremely well with a lemoncello after dinner drinkkie

As always, when coming into a new place as a family, one of the first things that comes to mind is where does one go to for some decent food, which is concurrently suitable for children?

For me, the noise and the crowd levels within the premises is certainly something which will have an impact on the quality time that we are able to spend as a family. Hence these factors play a big role when I am considering the Kazakh-Expat “rating” of restaurants. I do hope you find these valuable sharings valuable when deciding on where to go to for a good meal over the weekends. Look out for more recommendations over the coming weeks ahead.

Should you have your comments on the restaurants which I have looked at above, do share. And if there are places you think ought to be tried, please let me know and will definitely go in and revert with our thoughts.

And finally thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

A wee bit about Kazakhstan and the City of Astana…

The range of scenery available to the common traveler is quite immense,  from the mountain ranges down South (just off the City of Almaty)  and  North East (The Almay Mountains) and their associated valleys to the nature reserves and lakes which are scattered across the country, such as Altyn-Emel National Park located in the East and the one closest to Astana ie Burabay.

The famous Steppe is located in the Centre and North of the Country.  The proverbial heartland of Kazakhstan,  these lands go on for miles until they meet the mountain ranges down south and the open lands of Siberia up north.

The arid mountain ranges as you fly into Kazakstan from the south

The fertile farm lands as you enter into the southern fringes of Kazakhstan

The Lakes of Burabay, north of the City of Astana by some 3 hours by road. Peaceful and picture perfect, very much akin to the Lake District of England

Nature reserves,  eco-tourism and the Labour camps personifying the Soviet rule of old are the principal attractions over here. And in the midst of all this vastness lies Astana.  A jeweled city that had sprouted out of literally nowhere. It boasts of 21st century architecture (and rapid building is on going even as this is penned down) with a bold vision by President Nursultan Nazarbaev, which is essentially has put Astana on the map of Central Asia.  Astana is now viewed as a show piece city in this part of the world.

Some Trivia for you

• Kazakhstan ranks 9th in the world in terms of land area.  Approximately 2.7 million sq km;
• Population size of approx 19 million people;
• The country is divided into 14 oblasts and 2 cities of key importance ie Astana and Almaty respectively;
• Whilst the official language is Kazakh,  Russian is a language which is commonly  used for business and commerce and the English language is now slowly being embedded into the national education curriculum. Having said that many of the locals are now picking up this language as they do see themselves, being connected to the wider world through the English language;
• And as of the time of writing this 15 August 2016, it has a tally of 8 medals in the Rio Olympics of 2016, of which 2 are gold. An amazing feat for a fledgling nation which is now sharing the podium with the traditional sports power houses like USA, Russia, Australia, China and the UK.

For now, lets focus our attention on the Nation’s Capital… Astana. We will discuss Almaty in a later post.

Today, dubbed by many tourists and locally residing expats alike as the “Dubai of the Steppe”, this City grew up in the 1800s as a Russian fortress called Akmola. It safeguarded the South Eastern part of the Russian Empire at the time. During the 1960s during the heart of the Soviet era, it acquired the name Tselinograd. And fascinatingly enough, when travelling into the City by air, the airport code for Astana today is “Tse”… something which I had always wondered why? Well now I know. With the collapse of the old USSR, the name Akmola returned to the City and during the late 1990s, it was christened “Astana” by the President, Kazakh for “Capital”.

The City is indeed a site to behold. For me, it is akin to an oasis within the centre of the vast Steppe. It is fascinating to note that how the proverbial vast “nothingness” of this area of land is punctuated by this dynamic City, which to many appears to be plonked in the middle out there.

Astana City skyline from the Pyramid of Peace & Reconciliation

A look at the Presidential Palace from across the Isim River

 

The Pyramid of Peace & Reconciliation emerging from the land like a beacon beckoning those looking for serenity amidst the helter skelter of the City

Admittedly, the planful nature of the city blocks and residential estates, its highways and roads and byways, comes across as a clinical, somewhat an impersonal place. Many have compared it to the administrative centres like that of Canberra of Australia or Putra Jaya of Malaysia.

However for me, it’s amazing to see the ambitions of a nation personified in the brightly coloured, ever expanding, multi faceted city of Astana. It now is fast becoming a hub for the ambitious and the talented and before long will, I foresee, become the financial and technological gateways for Central Asia. This will inturn bring with it its own set of challenges and it will be fascinating to see how the Nation adapts and evolves with the changing times before it.

More about that in future posts. Do have a look at my other site, www.taranjeets.com for my perceptions and observations from a business perspective and what I see is playing out in this Nation set amongst the Steppe.

12 weeks on…

Its been just over 12 weeks now since we moved to Astana. And when we come in as a family unit (2 Kiddos and their Parents),  we knew not what was before us. “Its Hoth”, I heard my Star Wars fan of my 12 year old Son exclaim as the swirls of snow traced their way along the runway at Astana International Airport. On looking out of the window of the warm 27 deg celcius  cabin of the Air Astana aircraft, we were greeted with a tungsten lit apron, small polar bear like figures with balaclavas dotted around the apron to greet the aircraft as it grinded to a halt after its gruelling 11 hour odd journey,  with the snow plows doing their thing in the distance and a matter of fact announcement on the cabin intercom booming they way they usually do, “Welcome to Astana International, and the weather outside is a cold -18 deg celcius”.

And here we were coming in from a warm, humid, balmy 32 Degree Celcius out from the sun filled sandy beaches of South East Asia… and the rest as they say is history.

We came from the sun filled, sandy beaches of this…

.. to this

12 Immediate Learnings over a course of 12 Weeks

1. Do not let the weather fool you.. It has the habit of turning when you least expect it… So treat it with the respect it deserves and dress warmly.
2. Do not let the poker faced, some what aggressive looking local fool you, they are actually very warm once you get to know them.
3. My long held theory of “cold weather equates to cold people, who have no time to speak to you nor are interested to know about you” has now been made defunct with my entry into this part of the world. By and large those who I have met have been very warm and accommodating. Though admittedly, the weather does have something to do with it as well.
4. The variety of consumables that one would be used to in the home country may not be as vast in Astana, however, with some level of perseverance and sleuthing, you will probably be able to  find what you are looking for.
5. Having a rudimentary understanding of the Russian language (at the very least) is an absolute must. If not for anything else, ensuring that the common most applied key phrases are in your repertoire is critical.
6. You will find that Google Translate on your smart phone will now be your best friend.. Not sure if its “forever” though
7. There are lots to do and to keep yourselves entertained, especially for those with kids in tow, however you must work at finding out where these places are located
8. Medical services whilst decent, works extremely pretty well if you speak some semblance of the Russian language. For the rest of us, you better hope your Google Translate also does medical terms.. Which incidentally it does not.. I have tried. So your best bet would be to request for a translator to be at hand during the medical examination. Whilst not many speak English within the hospital/clinic, you may get lucky. This can become particularly stressful when you are having children who have fallen ill or have had accidents.
9. Self medication would probably be your best first course of defense. The pharmacists are well stocked and have all the various drugs that you would probably require. However to be on the safe side, as an Expat who may have regular trips planned to your home country, you may wish to stock up on the basic essentials for the children especially, prior to your return trip to Kazakhstan.
10. Loads of restaurants with different cuisines catering for a variety of palettes. However should you be looking for the slight more spicy Asian variety of foods, whist there are some places that cater for this, there are not many around town within Astana at least.
11. The network of like minded friends is the closest thing you will get to a support group. Keep this group close at hand as you will never know who has what knowledge, about what and where, unless you ask.
12. And finally Central Asia is an exciting place to be in, especially at this point in time. And what better place to be in than in Astana, the sparkling Jewel of the Nation.

About this Site
This site has been developed with the  intent of sharing personal views, observations and reflections of one who has recently moved with his young family to this amazing Country. I hope that it will be a site that will be a focal point for those interested in understanding the practicalities of what it takes to Live on the Steppes.

To further support our growth as individual cogs in this vast wheel, I will be making references to books and other materials, feel free to click on the links which I will be attaching. There is a variety of literature out that, it always helps if some one could point you in the right direction.

And to start off with, heres an easy to read piece about understanding Kazakh Culture. Whilst it may not be entirely accurate, it provides a good start for the uninitiated.

Click here should you wish to check the book out.

And lastly, it will be great if you could share your experiences as well. The power of the collective whole far exceeds what individuals are able to do on their own. It is my request that we harness this positivism and learn and experience together for our common mutual benefit.