What to eat in Uzbekistan? - 12 Uzbek delicacies

What do you eat in Uzbekistan? We visited the Central Asian country for a week and were able to try lots of delicious and exciting food. Here are some common Uzbek dishes and delicacies.

Uzbek food

Uzbek cuisine is a typical Central Asian cuisine. As there are many farmers who grow grain, products such as bread, dumplings and noodles are an important part of the diet. Meat is also very popular, primarily lamb and beef. Pork is mainly not eaten, as most people are Muslim. However, there is a wide variety of vegetables, fruit and nuts.

We visited Uzbekistan in connection with 25 UNWTO i Samarkand and travelled around with guides, which meant we mostly ate at fancier restaurants. We got to taste a lot of traditional dishes and we thought very about food in Uzbekistan.

1. plough

If you are going to try just one dish in Uzbekistan, it is plough (pilaff). This is arguably the country's national dish, and everyone we spoke to loved this dish most of all. Plov consists of rice, meat (lamb or beef), carrots and spices.

When we ate plov, the dish was served on large plates, and several people ate from the same plate, from each end. We can agree that it was very good, and the meat was wonderfully tender.

2. bread

If we are to mention one more thing that is very typical of Uzbek food, it is bread. Particularly typical are round breads called no or patyr, and in Samarkand there are also so-called Samarkand breads.

We were served bread for all meals when we were in Uzbekistan, and you could also drop by bakeries on the way and buy a piece of bread.

3. samsa

Dishes made from flour and dough come in many different flavours. A popular Uzbek dish is the so-called samsa. These are baked small dumplings that often contain minced meat, and sometimes something else such as pumpkin. Samsa is often served as a small starter before the main course.

4. manti

Various forms of steamed dough dumplings are also common. Manti can be filled with lamb or beef, for example, and are super tasty.

5. chuchvara

A slightly smaller variety of dumplings are those known as chuchvara. These are also often filled with lamb or beef and can be served as they are, or in a soup.

6. soup

Soup is very popular in Uzbekistan. There are many different soups such as shurpa (soup with meat and vegetables) or lawyer (noodle dish that can be served as a soup).

We were often served soup between the starter and the main course. Among other things, we ate mastava (soup with meat, vegetables and rice) and solyanka (Russian meat soup) and fish soup. All the soups we had were very good!

7. Kurt and other dairy products

Various forms of flour products are part of Uzbek cuisine. Uzbek curt is a kind of salted and dried curd that is moulded into round balls. Another example is kaymak, which is the whipped fatty part of milk, which can be used instead of butter.

8. Shashlik and other meat dishes

Meat is very popular in Uzbekistan, in many different forms. A common meat dish is shashlik, which is a grilled skewer of beef or lamb. We were also served grilled meat, cold cut meat and meat stew, a Georgian variant. In addition to beef and lamb, chicken is sometimes served.

9. Salads

Salads are also popular, and we were served different salads every day as a starter. The salads can be light and fresh, such as achichuk (tomato and onion salad), or contain different types of meat or cheese. Some salads are also creamy.

10. Nuts and dried fruit

Nuts and dried fruit are served at everything from breakfast to meals, and you can also shop at markets in town. We saw lots of walnuts and dried grapes (raisins). The dried grapes we saw were different from the raisins we are used to - larger and with a distinct blue colour.

11. Fruit and vegetables

Fruit and vegetables are plentiful in Uzbekistan, both in markets and restaurants. When it comes to fruit, we particularly noticed the lovely pomegranates. There are also, for example, apples, apricots, quince, grapes and melons.

Common vegetables include tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, radish, cabbage, aubergine and pumpkin. The vegetables can be served fresh in salads, but also cooked or perhaps pickled.

12. sweets

Traditional sweets in Uzbekistan include among others half (confectionery made from tahini) and navat (In the restaurants we visited, it was most common to have various beautiful little pastries, sometimes accompanied by chocolate and nuts.

What do you drink in Uzbekistan?

As most Uzbeks are Muslims, it is relatively common not to drink alcohol, so you'll see a lot of soft drinks and juices even in fine restaurants. Tea is also a very common beverage, and there is a cold yoghurt drink called... ayran.

However, they also drink beer and wine. There is locally produced beer and there are a bunch of wineries. We tried Uzbek wine several times, and it tasted very good.

Eating in a restaurant in Uzbekistan

Eating in a restaurant in Uzbekistan was an experience. There are quite a few large restaurants, some of which are beautifully decorated for use as party and wedding venues. We noticed that in Uzbekistan love to dance, because as soon as the music started, everyone got up on the dance floor, even in the middle of the meal.

But aren't there simpler and smaller restaurants? Yes, of course there are. Smaller places are often called cafés, and there are of course places that serve fast food and the like.