Samarkand plov

What makes it different

Uzbekistan cooks dozens of styles of plov, but Samarkand’s is recognisable at a glance: pale rice crowned with carrots and meat. The secret is the method. In Fergana- or Tashkent-style plov, onions, meat and carrots are fried together until dark and the rice is folded into the zirvak, the rich base. In Samarkand 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 — no frying, no stirring.

Once the zirvak has matured, washed rice is laid evenly on top and left alone. Halfway through steaming the cook turns the rice layer once with a skimmer — the khomdam — to release excess steam so the grains stay separate. Serving follows the same logic: a dome of rice on the platter, with carrots and meat arranged over it.

Oil, feasts and festivals

Around Samarkand, and particularly in Konigil, plov is traditionally cooked in linseed oil (zighir), which the village still presses the old way; visitors can join plov-making masterclasses there. At weddings, nahor oshi — morning plov for hundreds of guests — is served soon after dawn.

In 2016 Uzbekistan’s ‘Palov culture and tradition’ was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In August 2025 the city held its first international Samarkand Plov festival, where 55 cooks prepared 7 tonnes in a single cauldron at the Eternal City complex. Eat it with achichuk, a sharp tomato-and-onion salad, and finish with a pot of green tea.