Turkmen cuisine, the

cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

, is similar to that of the rest of

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. ''Plov'' (

pilaf Pilaf ( US spelling) or pilau ( UK spelling) is a rice dish, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some techniq ...

) is the staple, everyday food, which is also served at celebrations. It consists of chunks of mutton,

carrots The carrot (''Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, ''Daucus carota'', nativ ...

and

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

fried in a large cast-iron cauldron similar to a

Dutch oven A Dutch oven (not to be confused with masonry oven) is a thick-walled cooking pot with a tight-fitting lid. Dutch ovens are usually made of seasoned cast iron; however, some Dutch ovens are instead made of cast aluminium, or ceramic. Some metal ...

. Manti are dumplings filled with

ground meat Ground meat, called mince or minced meat outside North America, is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. A common type of ground meat is ground beef, but many other types of meats are prepared in a similar fashion, includi ...

onions An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

pumpkin A pumpkin is a vernacular term for mature winter squash of species and varieties in the genus ''Cucurbita'' that has culinary and cultural significance but no agreed upon botanical or scientific meaning. The term ''pumpkin'' is sometimes use ...

Shurpa Chorba or shorba (from dialectal Arabic ; from , 'to drink') is a broad class of stews or rich soups found in national cuisines across the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It is often prepared w ...

is a meat and vegetable soup. A wide variety of filled pies and fried dumplings are available in restaurants and

bazaars A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, such as in the W ...

, including somsa, gutap (often filled with

spinach Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to central and western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common edible vegetable consumed either f ...

), and

ishlykly Ishlykly is a traditional dish similar to pizza but covered with dough. It consists of a two-layer dough stuffed with a mixture of meat (most commonly mutton) and vegetables, and is often prepared for special guests especially in Turkmenistan, Afg ...

. These are popular with travelers and taxi drivers, as they can be eaten quickly on the run, and are often sold at roadside stands. Turkmen cuisine does not generally use spices or seasonings, and is cooked with large amounts of cottonseed oil for flavor.

Chegdermeh Chekdirme or Çekdirme is a Turkmen traditional food that is cooked simultaneously with rice, meat (usually mutton or lamb), tomato paste or tomato and onions with oil, water and add-ons such as salt, turmeric and pepper. This dish is prepared i ...

, a mixture of rice, meat, tomato and onions, is a uniquely Turkmen dish.

Shashlyk Shashlik, or shashlick (russian: шашлык ''shashlyk''), is a dish of skewered and grilled cubes of meat, similar to or synonymous with shish kebab. It is known traditionally by various other names in Iran, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and C ...

, skewered chunks of mutton, lamb,

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

, or sometimes

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

, grilled over

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

and garnished with raw sliced

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

and a special

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to et ...

-based sauce, is served in restaurants and often sold in the street. Restaurants in Turkmenistan serve mainly Russian fare such as pelmeni,

buckwheat Buckwheat (''Fagopyrum esculentum''), or common buckwheat, is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. The name "buckwheat" is used for several other species, such as '' Fago ...

(''grechka''), golubtsy, and a wide variety of mayonnaise-based salads. Lagman, a Uyghur noodle dish, can also be found in some areas.

Melons

In the culinary arena, Turkmenistan is perhaps most famous for its

melons A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of botanical berry, berry, specifical ...

, especially in the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, where it was once the major supplier. Though very few melons are exported today, they are a great source of national pride in Turkmenistan and subject of their own

Melon Day Melon Day is an annual national holiday in Turkmenistan devoted to festivities to celebrate the country's muskmelon, in particular a recent crossbreed product named " Turkmenbashy melon" (after Turkmenistan's first president), which is praised f ...

holiday. Turkmen sources claim the country is home to up to 400 distinct varieties.

Bread

Meals are almost always served with

naan Naan ( fa, نان, nān, ur, , ps, نان, ug, نان, hi, नान, bn, নান) is a leavened, oven-baked or tawa-fried flatbread which is found in the cuisines mainly of Western Asia, Central Asia, Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, Ma ...

, Central Asian

flat bread A flatbread is a bread made with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pizza and pita bread. Flatbreads ra ...

, known locally as ''çörek''. Turkmen bread is prepared differently from other breads in the region in thick, round disc-shaped loaves baked in a traditional tamdyr clay oven. Bread has a high symbolic importance in Turkmen culture, and it is considered highly impolite to turn a loaf of bread upside down or to mistreat bread in any way. There are many superstitions based around bread and its preparation. Bread baked with meat inside (''etli çörek'', or "meat bread") can be consumed as a meal in itself. ''Ýagly çörek'' (literally "oily bread") is a flaky, layered type of flat bread made with

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment ...

Beverages

As in the rest of

green tea Green tea is a type of tea that is made from '' Camellia sinensis'' leaves and buds that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation process which is used to make oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China, and since the ...

is the primary drink, consumed at all hours. In the

Turkmen language Turkmen (, , , or , , , ), sometimes referred to as "Turkmen Turkic" or "Turkmen Turkish", is a Turkic language spoken by the Turkmens of Central Asia, mainly of Turkmenistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. It has an estimated 5 million native speakers ...

, "chai" (tea) can refer to eating a meal or sitting down for a visit. In the Dashoguz region, it is sometimes drunk " Kazakh-style" with milk, often to disguise the salty taste of the drinking water in that area. Gatyk, a thick drinking

yogurt Yogurt (; , from tr, yoğurt, also spelled yoghurt, yogourt or yoghourt) is a food produced by bacterial Fermentation (food), fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yogurt are known as ''yogurt cultures''. Fermentation of sugars in t ...

similar to kefir, is often served with

breakfast Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...

and sometimes used as a condiment on ''börek'' or manti, replacing the traditional

sour cream Sour cream (in North American English, Australian English and New Zealand English) or soured cream (British English) is a dairy product obtained by fermenting regular cream with certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, wh ...

. The drink the nation is known for, however, is ''

chal Chal, or shubat ( kk, шұбат, ), is a Turkic (especially Turkmen, Uzbek and Kazakh) beverage of fermented camel milk, sparkling white with a sour flavor, popular in Central Asia — particularly in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. ...

'', a fermented

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. Immune factors and immune ...

, which is a white sparkling beverage that has a sour flavour and is popular in Central Asia, particularly in Turkmenistan. Because of specific preparation requirements and it being extremely perishable, ''chal'' presents a great challenge for importers to ship outside Turkmenistan or the region for foreign consumption. It is similar to the Kyrgyz drink ''shoro''. One source notes that Turkmens like to get ''agaran'' (a type of

) from the surface of ''chal''.I.Barkhanov. Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper
, in Russian, August 9, 2001.

Alcoholic beverages

Vodka Vodka ( pl, wódka , russian: водка , sv, vodka ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage. Different varieties originated in Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impuritie ...

is the most popular alcoholic beverage, due to its low cost, followed by

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

brandy Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured with ...

, and sparkling wine ( Russian: шампанское/''shampanskoye'').

References

External links

One Turkmen Kitchen

Vopr Pitan. "Chemical composition of chal (fermented camel's milk)", 1954 Jul-Aug;13(4):41-2

Martinenko, N.l., Yagodinskaya, S.G., Adhundov, A.A., Charyev, K.C. and Khumedov, O. (1977). Content of trace elements, copper, manganese, molybdenum in culture of chal and camel's milk and their clinical significance. Dairy Sci. Abst., 40(7802), p. 824

B. Faye and P. Esenov (eds.). Desertification Combat and Food Safety. The Added Value of Camel Producers. Volume 362 NATO Science Series: Life and Behavioural Sciences. OS Press Publication, February 2005, 240 pp., hardcover

Filip Noubel, "GOLDEN CENTURY OF THE TURKMENS:" A BLEAK PICTURE OF VILLAGE LIFE IN THE DESERT. EurasiaNet photo essay
2002-10-25 {{DEFAULTSORT:Turkmen Cuisine Central Asian cuisine