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 · Khorezm
Shivit oshi
Known as ‘Khorezm’ or ‘green’ lagman: dill-flavoured noodles (shivit means dill) served with a meat sauce and suzma; sources trace the dish to Khiva.
Photo: Jamshid Nurkulov · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Green noodles
Shivit oshi is Khorezm’s own take on lagman, also called Khorezm lagman or green lagman. In the local dialect shivit means dill: finely chopped fresh dill is kneaded into the dough, turning the noodles pale green. The boiled noodles are topped with a sauce of meat, onion and vegetables and served with suzma, thick strained yoghurt.
Local sources say the dish originated in Khiva and is now cooked in every district of Khorezm. Bakhtiyor Dustjonov’s Khorezm Dishes describes it as rich in vitamins and minerals and recommends it for the hottest summer days.
To Tashkent and today
According to Uzbekistan.travel, the recipe became known in the capital thanks to Rajab Sattarov, a cook from Khiva who moved to Tashkent in 1958. Today it is a fixture in national-food restaurants in Khiva and Urgench, and places around Itchan Kala often serve it alongside tukhum barak. Order it at lunchtime, freshly made.
Photos
Dish · Khorezm, Karakalpakstan
Tukhum barak
Khorezm’s signature dish: delicate boiled dumplings filled with raw egg mixed with milk or butter.
Dish · Karakalpakstan, Khorezm
Juvari gurtik
An old dish of Karakalpak and Khorezm cooking: coin-shaped sorghum-flour dumplings simmered in meat broth.
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 · 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 · 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.