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.
Moreover, you can inhale bowlfuls of hand-pulled noodles in vegetable broth, enjoy 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.
Celebrate Uzbekistan’s Culinary Heritage with plov
Traditionally cooked by men, plov is so central to the Uzbek identity that every town and every family has its own special recipe. It has even 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.
Munch on Meaty Goodies
Almost as synonymous with Uzbek cuisine as plov, shashlik comes in many varieties, including mutton, lamb, beef, chicken, liver, and lyulya (ground beef), all well-spiced, juicy, and prepared over hot coals. The recipes of their marinades are jealously guarded. Kebabs aside, delights for the carnivorous 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.
Slurp on Oodles of Noodles
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 consists of steaming bowls of long, flat noodles in broth, with separately cooked mutton (or beef) and finely chopped vegetables (onions, bell peppers, aubergine, carrot, potato) mixed in, and everything topped with a riot of fresh herbs.
In Tashkent, Uyghur-style, hand-pulled chuzma-laghman hint at the ancient Chinese roots of the dish, while elsewhere you’ll find noodles cut into long strips, Uzbek-style. Another variation on laghman is qavurma laghman (noodles without broth). In Khiva, look out for shivit-oshi (green noodles made of dough with added fresh dill), topped with fried meat and vegetables; elsewhere, you may encounter beshbarmak (noodles with horse meat and broth) and naryn (horse meat sausage with cold noodles).
Where to try it: Try Khorezm Art Restaurant in Khiva, Anor in Tashkent, or Besh Chinor in Samarkand.
Stop for Tea
Step into one of the ubiquitous chaikhanas (tea houses) – the Uzbekistan equivalent of a pub – and you’ll find yourself amongst local men engaging in leisurely conversations, playing backgammon, clinching business deals, and discussing the world while drinking tea from traditional cups akin to small bowls. All over Uzbekistan, green tea tends to be more common, while in Tashkent, you’re more likely to encounter a mixture of black and green tea with lemon and honey. The brewing ritual, called kaytar, is fairly elaborate: first, tea leaves are steeped in boiling water until they brew a little bit; the tea is then poured from the teapot into the bowl-like cup and back again three times. While chaikhanas are traditionally the domain of men, some allow foreign women to enter; even if you do not visit a chaikhana, you will be served tea before and after any meal.
Where to try it: Any chaikhana.
Break Bread with Strangers
One of the pillars of Uzbek cuisine, naan (bread) is cooked in tandoor-style ovens and is central to cultural customs and celebrations. Regional variations abound: in Tashkent, chow down on patir naan (made with milk), while Samarkand naan contains onions and meat. In the Fergana Valley, katlama (flatbread greased with butter or brushed with katyk) is served at every meal. To show due respect to bread, break it by hand and never place it with the decoration facing down.
Where to try it: Any Uzbek home.
Warm Up with a Bowl of Soup
Uzbekistan’s thick, hearty soups are fantastic winter warmers that you’ll find bubbling away in kazans (cauldrons). The most popular is shurpa, a meat broth soup with chunks of mutton, cooked on the bone and separated before serving, plus vegetables. The regional variation of kovurma shurpa, where the meat is first fried, is found in the south of the country. Other nourishing liquids include mastava – a rice soup with beef and vegetables often topped with sour cream; mashhurda – a thick soup made from boiled beef or lamb bones with rice and mung beans; plus nohat shurak, made from chickpeas and beef, usually accompanied by a piece of kazy (horse sausage).
Where to try it: Stop by National Food in Tashkent, or Osh Markazi in Samarkand.
Start Your Day with Dairy
Make your way to a busy bazaar in Tashkent or Samarkand early in the day and head for the dairy section, where you’ll find trays of kurt (sun-dried, salty, fermented milk cheese, either cubed or spherical) – a popular protein-packed snack that can survive for weeks without refrigeration. Dairy sellers will also offer you bottles of ayran – a drink made from katyk (fermented cow’s or sheep’s milk) mixed with sparkling or still water, herbs, and a dash of salt (you’re also likely to encounter it at breakfast time in traditional guesthouses), and pots of suzma (yogurt made from katyk, minus the excess liquid).
Katyk makes appearances elsewhere: it’s a typical ingredient in shurpa and plov, as well as a base for katykli (katyk-based soup with meat, vegetables, and rice) and chalop (a cold soup incorporating finely chopped vegetables).
Where to try it: The dairy counters at Uzbekistan’s markets. You can also find ayran and katyk at supermarkets.
Chow Down on Street Food
Uzbek street food is excellent for budget travelers. It’s inexpensive, flavorful, and sufficiently filling. Pride of place goes to manty, large steamed dumplings filled with finely chopped meat. It’s the quintessential food of nomads, acting as both soup and main course: bite a hole in the dough, drink the meaty juices, then devour the rest.
Other doughy delights include smaller, boiled chuchvara dumplings, served in vegetable broth; crispy fried chuchvara; hanum (steamed, log-shaped dumplings stuffed with potatoes and onions) and tukhum-barak (square dumplings with raw egg poured into the dough before boiling) – the latter unique to Khiva.
Samsa – a crispy, flaky, triangular pastry stuffed with minced or chopped meat, baked in a clay tandoor oven – stands as Uzbekistan’s answer to the samosa, having been introduced to India by Central Asian traders in the 13th century. Gumma samsa (stuffed with offal) is a particularly tasty variation.
Where to try it: Instead of street food stalls, in Uzbekistan, samsa and dumplings tend to be found at covered markets, such as the Choru street food market in Tashkent.
Taste Uzbekistan’s Wine Vintages
In Uzbekistan, grape cultivation and winemaking date back several millennia. Viticulture became further entrenched in Central Asia with the arrival of Alexander the Great’s armies in the 4th century BCE. Moreover, Marco Polo raved about the quality of Samarkand’s and Bukhara’s wines while traveling in Central Asia in the 13th century. Conquest by Tsarist Russia in the late 19th century led to grape harvesting and wine production on an industrial scale. Today, travelers may sample excellent vintages made from both classic grape varieties (pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, Riesling) and regional ones (rkatsiteli, soyaki, hindongna).
Where to try it: Several wineries offer tours of their premises, accompanied by wine tastings. In the Zarafshan valley, 15 km from Samarkand, the Bagizagan winery produces saperavi and cabernet, plus Riesling, bayan shirey, and kuldjinskiy blends, as well as vermouth infused with mountain herbs and brandy.
Finish on a Sweet Note
Locally-grown apricots, cherries, peaches, figs, and melons add a crowning touch to meals in the summertime. The rest of the year, seek out dried melons and apricots; halva (crumbly confection made with tahini), khashtak (made from nuts and dried fruit), kozinaki (nuts brittle made with sugar syrup), pashmak (halva woven from thin, sweet threads), bugirsaki (sweet pastries prepared for the holidays), Turkish delight, holvaitar (dessert made from flour, sugar, butter, and water), and sumalak (traditional dessert boiled in a huge cauldron for Navruz – Persian New Year).
Where to try it: Assorted fruit and sweets can be found at Uzbekistan’s food markets, such as Samarkand’s Siad Bazaar.
Vegetarians and Vegans
Uzbekistan’s abundance of superb fruits and vegetables, courtesy of its fertile soil and sunny climate, is a gift to non-meat-eating travelers. Traditionally, vegetarian dishes in Uzbekistan took the form of side dishes, as mains tend to be beef or lamb-based by default. With the advent of increased tourism, however, this trend is changing in bigger cities, where chefs have learned to substitute meat with legumes or vegetables in Uzbek standards such as plov and laghman.
Vegetarians and vegans alike can look for mashhurda (a thick soup made with rice and mung beans), albeit it’s wise to confirm its meat-free status, and salads such as achichuk (a spicy mix of tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers) and shakarob (a sweet salad of tomatoes and onions seasoned with salt) that are served alongside plov. Supermarkets and produce markets sell a wide variety of both seasonal and exotic fruits and vegetables. Some street food sellers even offer vegetarian samsa stuffed with potatoes, pumpkin, spinach, and mushrooms.
However, subsistence can be trickier for vegans, as bread and other dough products may involve eggs or be brushed with milk or katyk before baking.
Where to try it: Visit Caravan or Afsona in Tashkent, Karimbek or Platan in Samarkand, Temir’s in Bukhara, or Khiva Moon in Khiva.
