Foreign Students’ Fest: Culinary Competition “Masterpieces of Turkmen National Cuisine”

Foreign Students’ Fest is gaining speed. On March 1, 2013, a culinary competition “Masterpieces of Turkmen national cuisine” organized by the Youth Education Department jointly with the foreign students-monitors took place at Dormitory #4 of the University.

Three teams “Dastarhan” (Dorm 1 and 2), “Smirnovskiye povaryata” (Dorm 3) and “PTK” (“Pushkin Turkmen cookery experts”; Dorm 4) competed for the title of the best culinary experts.

The culinary competition consisted of three rounds. The first round – “Team’s visiting card” – made it possible for the guys to introduce their teams in an artistic and creative manner.

During the second round called “Hometask” each team submitted 3 dishes of the Turkmen national cuisine to approval of the jury. Taste of dishes, combinability of their ingredients, creativity, elegance, dish decoration laconism, dish presentation (palatability, attractiveness of dishes), table appointments and receipts were among the criteria evaluated.

In the third round called “Presentation of dishes” the competing teams presented their culinary masterpieces. Pilaf, chorba (soup based on meat broth), somsa (with meat, mushrooms, pumpkin), meat bread, etli borek (meat dumplings) impressed the jury members with delicious taste and creative decoration.

It was not easy at all to decide the winner, but in the end the “PTK” team (“Pushkin Turkmen cookery experts”) from Dormitory #4 was declared the absolute leader; the “Dastarhan” team (Dorm 1 and 2) was awarded in the nomination “Hospitable table”, while the “Smirnovskiye povaryata” team (Dorm 3) – in the nomination “Exotic taste”.

At the end of the event the contestants, jury members and guests were given an opportunity to get closely acquainted with the mysterious process of tea preparation. The 5^th year student of the Faculty of Philology Wu Xing told everybody present about peculiarities of the Chinese tea ceremony. The only thing the guests had to do was to breathe in aroma and enjoy the taste of authentic Chinese green tea.

Youth Education Department