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
Dried fruit and nuts
Raisins, dried apricots, dried melon, almonds and pistachios cured by the Uzbek sun — the most colourful aisles of any bazaar and the easiest souvenir.
Photo: Enric · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Fruit of the sun
Where summers are long, hot and dry, fruit is dried for winter. Bazaar dried-fruit rows are piled with black, golden and green raisins, dried apricots and whole dried apricots, dried melon, prunes, figs, and almonds, walnuts, pistachios and peanuts. Dried melon and melon syrup (shinni) are traditional products: Uzbek sources note that melons are eaten fresh, dried, or boiled down into syrup and preserves.
Dried fruit is a fixture of the tea table, set out for guests with bread, novvot and sweets.
Buying at the bazaar
The dried-fruit aisles are among the busiest at Chorsu in Tashkent, Siyob in Samarkand, and the bazaars of Bukhara and the Fergana Valley. Tasting before buying is expected, and sellers will press a handful on you. Prices are open to discussion, so bargaining is both custom and conversation. For the journey home, ask about vacuum packing — some sellers offer it.
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.