Dish · Samarkand
Samarkand non
A tandoor loaf with a thin stamped centre, a thick rim and a glossy crust — Samarkand’s best-known taste and the souvenir everyone takes home.
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.
Photo: Shuhrataxmedov · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What makes it different
Samarkand plov is recognisable at a glance: pale rice crowned with carrots and meat. The secret is the method. The meat is browned first, the onions follow briefly, and then matchsticks of yellow carrot are spread in a single layer and covered with water straight away, with no frying and no stirring. Once the zirvak is ready, the rice is laid evenly on top and left alone until the end.
Serving follows the same logic: a dome of rice on the platter, carrots and meat arranged over it. Uzbek reference works also mention sofaki plov as a Samarkand speciality.
Linseed oil and a festival
Around Samarkand, particularly in Konigil, plov is traditionally cooked in linseed oil, and visitors can join plov-making masterclasses there. In August 2025 the city held its first international Samarkand Plov festival, where 7 tonnes were cooked in a single cauldron at the Eternal City complex. Eat it with achichuk salad and green tea.
Photos
Dish · Samarkand
No‘xat sho‘rak (chickpea stew)
A thick stew of lamb and soaked chickpeas cooked in a kazan, best known in the Samarkand region.
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 · 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 · 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
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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
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Skewered meat grilled over embers — lamb, beef, meat with tail fat, liver, minced qiyma (lula) kabob — served with onion, vinegar and hot bread.