Dish · Nationwide
Plov (osh)
The centrepiece of any Uzbek meal: meat, onions and yellow carrots are cooked into a rich base in a kazan, then rice is steamed on top. UNESCO-listed since 2016.
Dish · Nationwide
Mastava
A rice soup made on the same principle as plov, with the meat fried first — often called ‘liquid plov’; served with yoghurt and herbs.
Photo: Jamshid Nurkulov · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Liquid plov
Mastava stands apart from other soups because of its rice, and it is cooked the way plov is. Meat, usually lamb ribs, is browned in a kazan, then onion, carrot, tomato and potato go in, followed by water and rice, and it simmers until the grains are soft. It can be made with rice and vegetables alone, but is customarily cooked in meat broth.
That is why English and Russian sources often call it ‘liquid plov’.
How it is eaten
Once ladled into a bowl, mastava gets a spoonful of qatiq or suzma and a scattering of herbs — coriander, dill, basil. Light yet filling, it is a regular at family suppers and on canteen lunch menus.
Sources (2)
Photos
Dish · Tashkent (city), Tashkent Region
Tashkent plov
The capital’s style of plov: everything is fried first and the rice is mixed into the base; wedding plov adds kazy sausage, chickpeas, raisins and sometimes quail eggs.
Dish · Samarkand
Samarkand plov
A layered plov in which nothing is stirred: the rice stays pale, and the carrots and meat are served on top of it.
Dish · Bukhara
Bukhara plov and oshi sofi
Bukhara’s own plovs: oshi sofi, made with separately boiled and drained rice, and plov cooked with mung beans.
Dish · Fergana, Andijan +1
Fergana plov
The dark plov of the Fergana Valley: a bone, meat, onions and carrots are fried long and hard until the zirvak turns deep brown.
Dish · Khorezm
Khorezm plov
Khorezm’s plov tradition, including suzma palov, in which the rice is boiled separately and drained before it meets the zirvak.
Dish · Nationwide
Samsa
Flaky pastries baked on the inner wall of a tandoor, filled with hand-chopped lamb, tail fat and onion — or wild greens in spring and pumpkin in autumn.
Dish · Jizzakh
Jizzakh samsa
Jizzakh’s culinary calling card: a large dome-shaped samsa made from three layers of dough, packed with lamb and tail fat and dipped in sunflower oil.
Dish · Nationwide
Kabob (shashlik)
Skewered meat grilled over embers — lamb, beef, meat with tail fat, liver, minced qiyma (lula) kabob — served with onion, vinegar and hot bread.
Dish · Bukhara
Gijduvan kebab
The famous minced-meat kebab of Gijduvan in Bukhara Region: the meat is minced twice, frozen, chopped and pressed onto skewers.