There’s more to Uzbekistan than sublime architecture with its intricate tilework, world-renowned craftsmanship and echoes of the Silk Road. Millennia of trade with its neighbors and the influences of various cultures have left an enviable culinary legacy, and hospitality towards visitors reigns supreme.
If you’re lucky enough to be invited into an Uzbek home, you may find yourself sitting down to a full spread of dishes, placed on a dastarkhan (low dining table). Kazans full of plov (Central Asian pilaf)and shurpa (meat and vegetable soup) are perpetually simmering in Uzbek kitchens, while spice-heavy shashlik (meat skewers) sizzle on grills before being presented with aplomb alongside fresh vegetable salads.
Elsewhere, you can inhale bowlfuls of hand-pulled noodles in vegetable broth, wolf down superlative street food, shaped by centuries of invasions and counter-invasions, feed your gut microbiome with katyk (yoghurt), sip bowlfuls of tea with locals, and sate your sweet tooth with superb fruit, their dried counterparts and a cornucopia of other sweets, as well as tasting the best wines in Central Asia.
Traditionally cooked by men, plov is so central to the Uzbek identity that every town and every family has its own special recipe, and it’s been recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Trying this dish is an important experience in Uzbekistan. A slow-cooked rice dish prepared in a large kazan (cauldron), plov typically contains mutton, lamb or beef, as well as spices, onions and carrots; the Tashkent version sees most of the ingredients roasted before plov is cooked, while plov from Samarkand tends to be layered and steamed.
Where to try it: Head to the Plov Centre in Tashkent, Osh Markazi in Samarkand, or The Plov in Bukhara.
Almost as synonymous with Uzbek cuisine as plov, shashlikcome in many varieties, including mutton, lamb, beef, chicken, liver and lyulya (ground beef), all of them well-spiced, juicy, fatty and prepared over hot coals, the recipes of their marinades jealously guarded. Kebabs aside, delights for the carnivorously inclined include hacip (boiled sausages made from minced meat and rice), kazy (horse meat sausages) and dolma (grape or cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and rice).
Where to try it: Sample the best at Mansur Shashlik in Samarkand, Terassa Restaurant in Khiva, or Caravan in Tashkent.
According to legend, laghman came about as a result of three hungry travelers meeting and deciding to pool their resources (flour, dried meat, radish, fragrant herbs). The result, found all over the country, consists of steaming bowls of long, flat noodles in broth, with separately cooked mutton (or beef) and finely chopped vegetables (onions,
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