My friend Anya, a Muscovite who came to the U.S. when she was twelve or so, visited me in L.A. a few years ago. She brought a packet of basturma with her.
I bought half a pound of the stuff from a local Russian market yesterday. I’ve just finished a basturma-and-feta sandwich.
Mmmm… 
It sounds very much like brush your teeth before you come near me food.
mmmmmmmmmm is right.
PS: I don’t mean ME actually, that would be me speaking in the third person, just to be clear, ok?
I get bistrma at my favorite persian store=)
I use it to make proto-gulyas. Hack into bite sized chunks, chop some onions, simmer for a fairly long time, and serve over hand made noodles. Great for SCA camp cooking purposes…can also use beef jerky in stew=)
Any potential uses in basturmation?
I swear, I saw it comin’ from a mile away.
In the Armenian community around here, it’s called basterma – same thing. In my late, great love’s Armenian family, they slice it paper-thin; you can hold it up to the light and it looks like a cross between meat and waxed paper. Darn, that stuff is delicious – thanks for reminding me of it. I’ll need to make a trip up to Watertown, Mass., where there’s a whole strip of Middle-Eastern groceries just full of deliciousness.
I’ve always guessed that basterma is the “original” form of pastrami. The names and processes would seem to bear that out.I’m just too damn lazy to do the research…
I ate it in an Azerbaijani restaurant in Moscow last week.
(looks at feet and walks away shyly)