Uzbek cuisine shares the culinary traditions of peoples across Central Asia. There is a great deal of grain farming in Uzbekistan, so breads and

noodles Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures (for example, Chinese noodles, Filipino noodles, Ind ...

are of importance, and Uzbek cuisine has been characterized as "noodle-rich".

Mutton Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries''. A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Gen ...

is a popular variety of meat due to the abundance of sheep in the country and it is a part of various Uzbek dishes.

Description

Bread (''nan'' or ''non'') is a staple; it is baked in a ''tandur'', which is frequently a pot rather than the deep pit or oven of India and Afghanistan. Many varieties of rice are eaten. Potatoes were introduced by the Soviets, and some elder Uzbeks still refuse to eat them. The most popular meat is mutton. Beef is common, and goat is eaten only rarely. Horse meat is used as well; there are sausages made of horse meat, as is the case with many other Turkic peoples.

Karakul sheep Karakul or Qaraqul (named after Qorakoʻl, a city in Bukhara Region in Uzbekistan) is a breed of domestic sheep which originated in Central Asia. Some archaeological evidence points to Karakul sheep being raised there continuously since 1400 BC ...

provide meat but also fat, particularly the fat from the tail end, called ''qurdiuq''. Uzbekistan's signature dish is palov (''plov'' or osh or palov, "pilaf"), a main course typically made with

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

, pieces of meat, grated carrots and

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 onio ...

s. It is usually cooked in a ''kazan'' (or ''deghi'') over an open fire;

chickpeas The chickpea or chick pea (''Cicer arietinum'') is an annual legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. Its different types are variously known as gram" or Bengal gram, garbanzo or garbanzo bean, or Egyptian pea. Chickpea seeds are hi ...

raisins A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word ''raisin'' is reserved for the dar ...

barberries ''Berberis'' (), commonly known as barberry, is a large genus of deciduous and evergreen shrubs from tall, found throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world (apart from Australia). Species diversity is greatest in South America an ...

, or fruit may be added for variation. Although often prepared at home for family and guests by the head of household or the housewife, palov is made on special occasions by the ''oshpaz'', or the ''osh'' master chef, who cooks the national dish over an open flame, sometimes serving up to 1,000 people from a single cauldron on holidays or occasions such as weddings. ''Nahor oshi'', or "morning plov", is served in the early morning (between 6 and 9 am) to large gatherings of guests, typically as part of an ongoing wedding celebration. Other notable national dishes include

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 prepare ...

(''shurva'' or ''shorva''), a soup made of large pieces of fatty meat (usually mutton) and fresh vegetables; norin and lagman, noodle-based dishes that may be served as a soup or a main course; manti (also called ''qasqoni''), chuchvara, and somsa, stuffed pockets of dough served as an appetizer or a main course (ranging from "wonderfully flaky and rich" to "heavy, stodgy");

dimlama Dimlama or dymdama (russian: Дымдама, ''dymdama'') is a Turkic and Uzbek (or-more broadly-Central Asian) stew made with various combinations of meat, potatoes, onions, vegetables, and sometimes fruits. Meat (lamb or sometimes veal or bee ...

(a meat and vegetable stew) and various

kebabs Kebab (, ; ar, كباب, link=no, Latn, ar, kabāb, ; tr, kebap, link=no, ) or kabob (North American) is a type of cooked meat dish that originates from cuisines of the Middle East. Many variants of the category are popular around the wor ...

, usually served as a main course. Green tea is the national hot beverage taken throughout the day;

teahouses A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whi ...

(''chaikhanas'') are of cultural importance.

Black tea Black tea, also translated to red tea in various East Asian languages, is a type of tea that is more oxidized than oolong, yellow, white and green teas. Black tea is generally stronger in flavour than other teas. All five types are made from ...

is preferred in Tashkent. Both are typically taken without

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 digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modula ...

or sugar. Tea always accompanies a meal, but it is also a drink of hospitality, automatically offered green or black to every guest.

Ayran Ayran, doogh, dhallë, daw, xynogala or tan is a cold savory yogurt-based beverage popular across Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeastern Europe, North Asia and Eastern Europe. The principal ingredients are yogurt, water and sa ...

, a chilled yogurt drink, is popular in the summer. The use of alcohol is less widespread than in the West. Uzbekistan has 14

wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, b ...

, the oldest and most famous being the Khovrenko Winery in Samarkand (est. 1927). The Samarkand Winery produces a range of dessert wines from local

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...

varieties: Gulyakandoz, Shirin, Aleatiko, and Kabernet likernoe (literally Cabernet dessert wine in

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

). Uzbek wines have received international awards and are exported to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and other countries in

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 ...

. The choice of desserts in Uzbek cuisines is limited. A typical festive meal ends with

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

or a compote of fresh or

dried fruit Dried fruit is fruit from which the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to th ...

, followed by nuts and

halvah Halva (also halvah, halwa, and other spellings, Persian : حلوا) is a type of confectionery originating from Persia and widely spread throughout the Middle East. The name is used for a broad variety of recipes, generally a thick paste made ...

with green tea.

Bukharan Jewish cuisine

The cooking of Bukharan Jews forms a distinct cuisine within Uzbekistan, subject to the restrictions of

Jewish dietary laws (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...

.Claudia Roden, ''The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York'', Alfred Knopf, New York (1996). The most typical Bukharan Jewish dish is ''oshi sabo'' (also ''osh savo'' or ''osovoh''), a "meal in a pot" slowly cooked overnight and eaten hot for Shabbat lunch. Oshi sabo is made with meat, rice, vegetables, and fruit added for a unique sweet and sour taste. By virtue of its culinary function (a hot Shabbat meal in Jewish homes) and ingredients (rice, meat, vegetables cooked together overnight), oshi sabo is a Bukharan version of

cholent Cholent and other Sabbath stews ( yi, טשאָלנט, tsholnt ''or'' tshulnt) are traditional Jewish stews. It is usually simmered overnight for 10–12 hours or more, and eaten for lunch on Shabbat (the Sabbath). Shabbat stews were develope ...

hamin Cholent and other Sabbath stews ( yi, טשאָלנט, tsholnt ''or'' tshulnt) are traditional Jewish stews. It is usually simmered overnight for 10–12 hours or more, and eaten for lunch on Shabbat (the Sabbath). Shabbat stews were develope ...

. In addition to ''oshi sabo'', authentic Bukharian Jewish dishes include: * ''Osh palov'' - a Bukharian Jewish version of palov for weekdays, includes both beef and

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 adu ...

. * ''Bakhsh'' - "green palov", rice with meat or chicken and green herbs ( coriander, parsley,

dill Dill (''Anethum graveolens'') is an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae. It is the only species in the genus ''Anethum''. Dill is grown widely in Eurasia, where its leaves and seeds are used as a herb or spice for flavouring food. Growth ...

), exists in two varieties; bakhshi ''khaltagi'' cooked Jewish-style in a small bag immersed in a pot with boiling water or soup and bakhshi ''degi'' cooked like regular palov in a cauldron;''Ethnographic Atlas of Uzbekistan'': Central Asian Jews
p. 93 bakhshi ''khaltagi'' is precooked and therefore can be served on Shabbat. * ''Khalta savo'' - food cooked in a bag (usually rice and meat, possibly with the addition of dried fruit). * ''Yakhni'' - a dish consisting of two kinds of boiled meat (beef and chicken), brought whole to the table and sliced before serving with a little broth and a garnish of boiled vegetables; a main course for

Friday night dinner ''Friday Night Dinner'' is a British television sitcom written by Robert Popper and starring Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal, and Mark Heap. The comedy is focused on the regular dinner experience of the middle-class Bri ...

. * ''Kov roghan'' - fried pieces of chicken with fried potatoes piled on top. * ''Serkaniz'' (''Sirkoniz'') - garlic rice dish, another variation of palov. * ''Oshi piyozi'' - stuffed onion. * ''Shulah'' - a Bukharian-style

risotto Risotto (, , from meaning "rice") is a northern Italian rice dish cooked with broth until it reaches a creamy consistency. The broth can be derived from meat, fish, or vegetables. Many types of risotto contain butter, onion, white wine, and Pa ...

. * ''Boyjon'' - eggplant puree mixed only with salt and garlic, the traditional starter for the Friday-night meal in Bukharan Jewish homes. * ''Slotah Bukhori'' - a salad made with tomato, cucumber, green onion, cilantro, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Some also put in lettuce and chili pepper. * ''Noni Toki'' - a crispy flat bread that is baked on the back of a wok. This method creates a bowl shaped bread. * Fried fish with garlic sauce (for

): "Every Bukharian Sabbath ... is greeted with a dish of fried fish covered with a pounded sauce of garlic and cilantro." In the Bukharan dialect, the dish is called or in full , where is fried fish and is garlic sauce (literally "garlic water"). Bread is sometimes fried and then dipped in the remaining garlic water and is called .

Uzbek dishes

Palov

Palov was not available to the general population until the 1930s, the Soviet era. Traditionally only men cooked the dish, but when the Soviets took over control of the country, they liberated women, who were then also allowed to prepare it. Since then, however, according to food scholar Nancy Rosenberger (writing in 2012), "the pendulum was swinging back, if it had ever swung very far". The basis is meat, usually mutton, with vegetables (carrots and onions), fried in ''qurdiuq'' (fat from the sheep's tail end). The mixture of onion and thinly cut carrot is called ''zirvak'', and it is compared to European soffrito. Often garbanzos and raisins are added, and instead of mutton all kinds of other basic ingredients can be used, including stuffed grape leaves or poultry. The meat is either boiled or fried with the ''zirvak''. The rice is cooked by being soaked and then placed on top of the other ingredients, so it steams--in contrast to other popular ways of making pilaf, where rice is fried, and the other ingredients added, and then the entire dish being cooked in water. * Oshi toki - stuffed grape leaves, similar to dolma, usually served as a cold appetizer.

Breads

Traditional Uzbek bread, called generically ''

noni ''Morinda citrifolia'' is a fruit-bearing tree in the coffee family, Rubiaceae. Its native range extends across Southeast Asia and Australasia, and was spread across the Pacific by Polynesian sailors. The species is now cultivated throughout th ...

'' or ''patyr'', is baked in the form of circular flat loaves ('' lepyoshka'' in Russian) with a thin decorated depression at the center and a thicker rim all around. Nons are brought to the table with the decorated side up, then torn into irregular chunks which are stacked on the bread plate. Every region has different varieties of non, most prominent are: *

Obi non ''Tandyr nan'' is a type of Central Asian bread. Names * Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik: ''nan'' (), ''tandyr nan'' () * Turkmen: * Uyghur: ''nan'' (), ''tonur nan'' () * Uzbekistan: , * Chinese: ''náng'' () * Russian: ''lepyoshka'' () Variet ...

is the staple bread of Uzbek cuisine. Obi nons are mentioned in one of the oldest written works, the

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with ...

. Obi nons are baked in clay ovens called '' tandir''. * Samarkand non. In different areas of Uzbekistan, obi non is baked in different ways. In Samarkand, small thick obi nons, the shirma nons are the most popular. * Bukhara obi non sprinkled with sesame or nigella, making a delicate aroma. * Wedding patir (flaky obi non) from Andijon and Qashqadaryo. According to ancient traditions, this aromatic bread prepared with cream and butter was served during matchmaking meetings. * Tashkent lochira, plate-formed obi non, baked from short pastry (milk, butter, and sugar). Jirish non is specially prepared bread from flour mixed with wheat. Nomadic tribes did not make tandirs because of their way of living, but cooked bread on butter in kazans (cauldrons), preparing the dough on a milk base.

Gallery

File:Tandyr Kabob.JPG, ''Tandir kabob'' - Mutton prepared in the tandir oven File:Uzbek Manti (bright).jpg, Manti (dumpling), Manti File:Лагман.jpg, Laghman (food), Lag'mon

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uzbek Cuisine Uzbekistani cuisine, Central Asian cuisine