How to pronounce Zhaya

Zhaya is written жая where it comes from. In the International Phonetic Alphabet it is /ʒɑˈjɑ/. In plain English letters that is zhah-YAH, with the stress on the syllable in capitals. There is no recording by a native speaker yet, so use the spelling and the IPA.

What is Zhaya?

Zhaya is a snack of Kazakhstan. People usually eat it on festive days and as a snack. Its main ingredients are beef. It tastes rich and savory.

Where Zhaya comes from

Zhaya is one of 11 signature dishes of Kazakhstan on this map.

• Baursak бауырсақ · Bread & pastry · All Kazakhstan

  Baursak are small pieces of dough, round or square, deep-fried until puffy and golden.

• Kumis қымыз · Drink · Kazakhstan

  Kumis, qymyz in Kazakh, is fermented mare's milk, a drink the Turkic and Mongol nomads of the steppe have made for thousands of years; the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Bashkirs, Tatars, Kalmyks, Mongols and Yakuts all drink it, and in Mongolia it is called airag.

• Shubat шұбат · Drink · Kazakhstan

  Shubat is fermented camel's milk, a sparkling white drink with a sour taste.

• Kuyrdak қуырдақ · Main dish · Kazakhstan

  Kuyrdak, quyrdaq in Kazakh, is a fry-up of the freshest parts of a newly slaughtered animal, made in Kazakhstan and across Central Asia and Mongolia; it is related to Turkish kavurma.

• Nauryz kozhe наурыз көже · Soup & stew · Kazakhstan

  Nauryz kozhe is the dish with which Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz as nooruz kozho, start the new year at Nauryz, the spring festival of Nowruz, for good luck.

• Zhent жент · Dessert · Kazakhstan

  Zhent is a Kazakh sweet served at the tea table.

Food of Kazakhstan

Dishes like Zhaya in other countries

Same type of dish and similar main ingredients as Zhaya:

• Olive ascolane olive all'ascolana · Snack · Ascoli Piceno (Marche), Italy

  Olive all'ascolana are large green olives, pitted in a spiral, stuffed with a mixture of beef, pork and chicken cooked in wine, with cheese and nutmeg, then breaded and fried.

• Bitterballen · Snack · North Holland, Netherlands

  Bitterballen are small, round, deep-fried balls about three to five centimetres across, with a crisp breadcrumb crust around a soft, hot ragout of beef stock thickened with roux and filled with meat, seasoned with onion, parsley and nutmeg.

• Pastel de Chaves · Snack · Chaves, Portugal

  The pastel de Chaves is a pastry of very thin, flaky layers wrapped around a filling of minced meat, and it is the best-known delicacy of Chaves, a town in Trás-os-Montes in the far north of Portugal.

• Borts борц · Snack · Mongolia

  Borts is Mongolian air-dried meat.