What to eat in Uzbekistan
Uzbek cooking is generous, slow and built around bread, fire and hospitality. You will eat well anywhere, but knowing what to order turns a good trip into a memorable one.
Plov, the national dish
Rice cooked with carrot, onion, lamb and cottonseed or sunflower oil in a wide cast iron kazan, finished with chickpeas, quail eggs, garlic or raisins depending on the region. Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Fergana each defend their own version, and the argument is part of the pleasure.
Plov is a lunch dish. Go before one in the afternoon, because the best plov centres cook a fixed quantity and simply close when it is gone.
Bread, samsa and the tandyr
Non, the round stamped bread, is baked on the wall of a clay tandyr and is treated with respect: never place it upside down. Samarkand bread is famously dense and keeps for days.
The same oven produces samsa, pastry parcels of lamb and onion or pumpkin, best eaten standing up, straight from the tray, while they are still too hot to hold comfortably.
Beyond plov
Look for lagman, hand pulled noodles in a peppery broth, shurpa, a clear lamb and vegetable soup, manti, large steamed dumplings, and shashlik grilled over vine wood. In summer add chuchvara and cold yoghurt soups.
Green tea arrives before anything else and keeps arriving. Sweets are simple: halva, dried apricots, walnuts and endless melon.
Vegetarians and dietary needs
Uzbek food is meat heavy, but the vegetarian table is better than its reputation: pumpkin samsa, achichuk salad, aubergine and tomato dishes, fresh cheese, dried fruit and outstanding bread. Vegetarian plov exists and can be cooked to order with notice.
Tell us about allergies, vegan, halal or gluten needs when you enquire. We brief every restaurant and homestay on the route in advance, because in a Uzbek kitchen it is easier to plan than to improvise.