This embedded reporting comes courtesy of the New York Times:
High in the Tien Shan Mountains, about 100 miles from the Chinese border on a midsummer day, two Kyrgyz women scoured a sandpit for choice clay.
Plucking a clump of dusty earth as if picking fruit from a tree, the younger of the two popped a sample in her mouth, letting the dirt melt on her tongue like a lozenge.
“It’s oilier here, tastier,” the woman, Baishekan Saginova, 40, said to her companion.
“It was too salty over there and not very good.”
Tolkonezhe Kasmanbetova, 52, agreed with the appraisal. “This is a bit more fatty,” she said, smacking her lips to savor the flavor.
More from the NYT…
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