Reporter’s Notebook: Olad’ya is a babushka’s recipe and a delicious meal for breakfast you need to know

Olad’ya is small size pancake or fritter and a popular breakfast meal in the former Soviet Union. The recipe of olad’ya was passed from babushkas (grandmas) to vnuchkas (grandaughters) in that part of the world for centuries. Olad’ya is usually about two and a half inches long and two inches wide. Here is a recipe…

Reporter’s Notebook: How to cook squash – two delicious recipes from Kazakhstan

Squash is a vegetable and is sold at every supermarket. They are usually green and yellow colors looking like fatty comas. Some shoppers mistake the green squash for cucumbers.      I have not seen squash served too often at parties or restaurants in Oklahoma. I think it is because of the lack of good recipes….

Reporter’s Notebook: A manti restaurant brings The Silk Road ancient taste to visitors in Kazakhstan

The Silk Road was a trade route from Europe to Asia from 300 B.C. to the 16th century.  A part of The Silk Road went through Kazakhstan where my home was. During a summer 2021 trip to central Kazakhstan, my fellow travelers and I stopped at a manti restaurant situated in the corner of a…

Reporter’s Notebook: Russian Non-Alcoholic drinks will keep you cool in summer

In Kazakhstan and other republic of the former Soviet Union, there are popular non-alcoholic drinks, which can greatly satisfy someone’s thirst in the hot summer. These are kvas, lemonade, and kompot. A variety of kvases and lemonades are sold at every supermarket or small shop in the former USSR. They have sweet and sour tastes….

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: Traveling during the pandemic is complicated, or how to book a flight

(Editor’s Note: This is the second article in a series.) To find the best deal on a flight, someone should search multiple booking websites and compare the prices. For example, I was searching a round-trip flight from Tulsa, Okla., to Kazakhstan (the republic of the former Soviet Union) in July 2021. The cheapest price was…