Traditional Karakalpak cuisine is an original culture, which is an interesting mixture of the culinary arts of many Central Asian peoples, like Uzbeks, Turkmens, Kazakhs. In Karakalpakstan, we celebrated the holiday of the national dish – Zhugeri gurtik for the first time this year on public initiative. A dish with an unusual sounding name, Zhugeri gurtik is one of the most beloved and widespread dishes in Karakalpak cuisine. This is a kind of dish, which is one of the oldest types of food, but still exists. It is a dish with meat or turkey and rolled pieces of dough made from flour of “zhugeri” (similar to sorghum), cooked in meat broth.

On the occasion of this day, a competition was organized at the Faculty of Foreign Languages among the girls living in the student dormitory No. 4, 5.
Meat and flour from “zhugeri” were distributed to each floor of the dormitory. On each floor, the girls cooked the broth by themselves and then mixed the dough. Sculpting small circles is a very difficult task, and the female students together sculpted many small circles (dumplings). And while girls were talking to each other, they quickly made the round shapes from the dough.

As a jury of the celebration, Veteran teacher Ismailova Abadan, Сhief economist of the university Uteuliyeva Sveta and Advisors to the Deans on women’s issues of other faculties were invited.
At the end of the competition, the dish prepared by the girls of the 2nd floor of the dormitory was chosen as the most delicious – 1st place; 2nd place was taken by the girls of the 1st floor, 3rd place – girls of the 5th floor, nominations “The most beautiful dish serving” were given to the girls of the 4th floor and “The most beautifully molded dumplings” – were given to the girls of the 3rd floor. The girls were awarded with diplomas and interesting fiction books as a gift.
Such beautiful customs give evidence of the originality of our Karakalpak people’s culture. Their preservation to this day is a sign of the Karakalpaks’ loyalty to the heritage of their ancestors.
The purpose of organizing this holiday is to foster love for the Motherland and the traditions of our people. And our main task is to lay universal human values in the younger generation, to demonstrate the ethical and aesthetic features of the nationality, to develop a greater level of pride pride in it and also to teach young people to respect the culture and traditions of other peoples.

Ametova Mukhabbat- Advisor to the Dean on women’s issues of the Foreign languages Faculty.