Talk:Tatar cuisine

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This page suffers due to the fact that most of the content originated as a poorly done translation into English. I have tried to fix some of it up, but even though I am a cook, familiar with Russian and some Tatar cuisine, I have problems making sense of some sentences. I've deleted phrases that make no sense and I hope, rewritten some sentences so they are at least intelligible. It is, however, possible that I have introduced errors of fact in doing so.

This article still needs a lot of editing to shorten it. It is too rambling and contains too many unneccesary comments. I already deleted a couple of paragraphs of Tatar history since that is adequately covered by other articles.

Tatar cuisine really is very interesting once you get into it. It has not lost its roots from ancient times when things like metal pots and pans were not available. It has elements that are also found in Chinese cuisine which is understandable since the Tatars are descended from a part of the Mongol armies which once ruled China. No doubt both learned from each other. This is an ideal cuisine to try on a backwoods camping trip.


 * I think it'll be better to separate Crimean Tatar cuisine frome Volga Tatar one.. they have so different origin... --Üñţïf̣ļëŗ ( see also: ә? Ә!) 09:14, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Should we split this article?
It has been suggested that this article should be split into separate articles for Volga Tatar cuisine and Crimean Tatar cuisine.

I am opposed to this for the following reasons.

1. I have seen no evidence that there are any substantial regional differences in modern Tatar cuisine. I would expect that there are some historical differences because rice (used in plov/pilaf/pilaw) does not grow in more northern areas. But nowadays, people in the north seem to prefer making plov with rice rather than buckwheat groats.

2. If we split these two particular regions, then the logical conclusion is to have several other articles to cover other Tatar groups in Xinjiang China, Astrakhan, Poland/Lithuania and the Caucasus mountains.

3. Tatar cuisine is actually not that different from the cuisine of other Turkic groups, Russians, Ukrainians, and Tadzhiks/Iranians. That's because all of these modern groups are ethnically mixed because of the ancient steppe traditions which encouraged alliances (marriage, fostering) outside of the tribe. If we let the cuisine drive the decision, then we would only have an Eastern European/Central Asian cuisine article.

4. "Tatar cuisine" is a concept that people talk about. Tatars of all groups are proud of the quality of their cuisine. Other ethnic groups such as Russians recognize Tatar cuisine as a specific thing even if they make it a regular part of their diet. I'm not aware that any group commonly draws a distinction between the cuisine of the Volga and Crimea Tatars. In fact, most of the Crimean Tatars lived alongside Kazan/Volga Tatars until quite recently when they have been able to return to Crimea. --Wavetossed 20:47, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
 * i think you are right. However, this article was based on the dissertation of a Kazan Tatar (see link below), so it does not provide any correct about Crimean tatar cuisine--Üñţïf̣ļëŗ ( see also: ә? Ә!) 21:22, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Writing style
This article seems to have been translated by an automatic language translator. The grammar is very poor and many sentences make no sense at all. There are no in-line citations and no sources. Please find sources and references and try to make the text make more sense. Thanks, Mathsci (talk) 23:53, 10 January 2009 (UTC)