Fabulous Foods of the Stans

Everywhere – All the melons, in all the shapes and colors. Fall is melon-palooza and I ate them all.

Khiva – Green noodles:  the noodle dough is made with dill.  The noodles are served in a hammock of parchment paper, to which is then added a sauce of dill, parsley, chives, and sunflower oil—kind of an Uzbek chimichurri. Toss, then ladle over the top a stew of carrots, potatoes, onion, and red bell peppers, and top with a dollop of plain yogurt.  For the first time in my life, I went back to the same restaurant (The Terrace) for lunch and again for dinner on the same day and ate the same damned meal twice.

Bukhara (/everywhere) – Laghman: this noodle dish is ubiquitous in Central Asia. Handmade wheat noodles of various thickness are cooked and then topped with a slightly spicy stew—either more or less wet, depending.  And many places in Bukhara do a vegetarian version, with tomatoes, peppers, carrots, eggplant, mushroom.

Dushanbe – Khoro tob:  this, one of Tajikistan’s national dishes, is best described as a warm yogurt soup, though I believe it’s actually made from these dried sour-milk balls (yuck) that are pervasive snack food in the Central Asia, mashed-up.  To this soup base (dairy and herbs and water and flax oil) is added strips of a kind of layered naan (or “non,” as it’s pronounced here) akin to puff pastry.  Top with raw onion, tomato, cucumber, and a chili pepper.  Amazing.

Song Kul Lake / Altyn Fatima yurt camp – Vegetarian oromo (ring-shaped dumplings) stuffed with cabbage and potato.  Ridiculous. And crazy that I didn't take a picture.  I was too busy gorging myself.

Karakol – Ashlan fu, which I mentioned a few posts back: Cold spicy noodle soup, the staple dish of the Dungan people, a Chinese Muslim community that fled persecution in the 19^th century to settle in Karakol, just 40 miles west of the Chinese border.  There are generally 2 kinds of noodles in the broth: a potato- or bean-starch noodle and a wheat noodle.  And at the tiny but mighty ashlan fu restaurant As-Saida, they’re served with a potato-stuffed fry-bread called piroushki in these parts.  Bowl of ashlan fu, a piroushki, and a glass of compote (dried apricot juice) for about $1.20.

Almaty - Samsa with cheese: These are sold everywhere from small storefronts/kiosks along the sidewalks.  It’s like puff pastry wrapped around some kind of cheesy deliciousness with a very faint onion vibe, maybe a 6-inch square with sesame seeds on top, and they cost about 60 cents each and I could eat them all day long.