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.
Green tea and tea etiquette
Green tea brewed in a pot and ‘returned’ to it three times — the opening of every conversation, deal and meal.
© ElenaLitera, CC BY-SA 4.0
How the tea is made
In Samarkand the day begins and ends with tea. The traditional brew is green, though black tea is drunk everywhere too. The pot is rinsed with boiling water, the leaves added and scalded, and the tea left to steep for a few minutes. Then the host pours a bowlful and tips it back into the pot, two or three times over. This ‘returning’, qaytarish, helps the tea brew quickly and evenly.
Tea is drunk from small bowls called piyola, and it is always poured by the host or by the youngest person at the table. A bowl is handed to a guest with the right hand, the left resting on the heart.
The half-full bowl
A guest’s bowl is filled only halfway. Popular wisdom reads this as ‘we will keep topping you up — stay with us longer’; a brimming bowl, by contrast, can be taken as a hint that it is time to go. The host often pours the first bowl for himself, to check the brew.
Tea comes with bread, novvot, parvarda, raisins and nuts, and it always follows a meal — especially a rich plov. Every mahalla has its teahouse, the choyxona, which is less a café than the daily meeting place of the neighbourhood’s men.
Cuisine
Cuisine
Samarkand bread
A tandoor-baked round with a thin, stamped centre, a plump rim and a glossy crust — Samarkand’s signature taste and the classic gift to carry home.
Tandoor samsa
Flaky pastries filled with lamb, onion and tail fat and baked on the wall of a tandoor — Samarkand’s favourite breakfast.
Kabob (shashlik)
Lamb, liver and minced-meat skewers grilled over charcoal and served with raw onion, vinegar and hot bread — the smoke that drifts down every Samarkand street.
Manti
Large steamed dumplings from a tiered steamer, filled with hand-chopped lamb, onion and tail fat — or with sweet pumpkin.
Shurpa
A hearty soup of mutton, carrots, potatoes and herbs, either simply boiled or browned first, served in a deep bowl with bread.
