The Uzbek national cuisine has a centuries-old history and reflects the diversity of the customs and traditions of the people. The development of the cuisine benefited much from the new crops which had come from the countries of the Great Silk Road. Moreover, the local rulers used to bring the best culinary experts from the conquered lands.Aromatic green teaIn every Uzbek house a guest is always offered a piala (a small bowl) of aromatic green tea. According to the original Uzbek tea ceremony the tea from the teapot that has just been filled with boiling water to brew is to be poured into the piala and returned to the teapot three times. Only in this way all the aroma and flavor of the tea is believed to emerge. As a token of respect for the guest the host fills only one-half of the piala, and then, putting the right hand to his heart, with his left hand holds out this piala to the guest. At the same time the fresh flat round Uzbek bread is served. This bread is still made in accordance with the ancestral recipe in the clay oven tandyr. The traditional feast at the Uzbek home starts with sweets. Offered to go with the tea, they are the crystallized sugar navat; the candy parvarda, which is made from flour and sugar; sweet tiny cakes; the halva halvoiytar (halva is a hard paste of nuts, sugar and oil).
Seasons, especially winter and summer, make an influence on the main menu. In summer fruits, vegetables nut are available everywhere. Fruits in Uzbekistan grow in abundance — grapes, melons, watermelons, apricots, pears, apples, quinces, persimmons, peaches, cherries, pomegranates, lemons and figs. So are the vegetables, including some less known kinds of green radish, yellow carrots, gourd family, in addition to the usual eggplants, peppers, turnips, cucumbers and juicy tomatoes.
Winter diet traditionally consists of dried fruits and vegetables, canned food. Noodles and different kind of pasta dishes — also a common food in a cool season.
One of the favorite dishes in Uzbekistan is lagman. Its recipe was brought by Uigur culinary experts from the Chinese province Xinjiang. This dish, combining in itself the first and the second course, contains long handmade noodles dressed with sauce with pieces of meat and vegetables.
Yet the main dish of the Uzbek cuisine is pilov (osh). Pilov is an indispensable part of any festive meal: none of the weddings or any other important occasions, on which guests are ever received, can do without it. As the legend says, the way of cooking pilov was “invented” during the conquest of Sogdiana by Alexander the Great. Supposedly, during a long mission trip his army ran out of food, except one sack of rice and a wild sheep that they had managed to kill. The cook made a dish from this stuff, spicing it with the seeds of some steppe herbs, and the amount of that “first pilov” turned out to be sufficient to feed the whole army. The respect of the Uzbeks for pilov can be traced in their language: the Uzbek for ‘pilov’ is ‘osh’, which literally means ‘food’. In the past pilov was a feast of the poor and everyday meal of the rich. According to historical sources, the emir of Bukhara used to eat pilov three times a day and arranged a sort of cooking contest for the best pilov among his dignitaries. There is a wide variety of cooking ways of pilov. Depending on the region of Uzbekistan, it is cooked either in fat of sheep’s tail or in vegetable oil; besides meat, rice and onions, which are the basic ingredients, the following is often added: red or yellow carrots, seeds of thyme, ground chilly, white raisins or pomegranate seeds, dried barberries, marrowfat peas, pieces of quince, heads of garlic. As a rule, pilov is served with green radish chopped into thin sticks, or with the salad achik-chuchuk which is made from finely cut tomatoes, onions and chilly.
Uzbek cuisine can’t be considered as such without the flaky pasty somsa, which has minced meat and a piece of fat of sheep’s tail inside; or the original ravioli-like Uzbek manty, which are filled with meat, potatoes or sweet pumpkin, and cooked in steam.
Traditionally any Uzbek feast treatment finishes with the mutton or beef kebab shashlik. Gourmets especially value jigar-kebab made of sheep’s liver.
Each dish should be served in a special kind of china or earthenware. Pilav is served on the large flat plate lyagan, whereas for shurpa and lagman the deep bowl kosa is used, tea is especially good in the small drinking bowl piala.
Tea is revered in the finest of oriental traditions. It is offered first to any guest and there exists a whole subset of mores surrounding the preparation, offering and consumption of tea. Green tea is the drink of hospitality and predominates. Black tea is preferred in Tashkent, though both teas are seldom taken with milk or sugar. An entire portion of their food culture is dedicated solely to tea drinking. Some of these include samsa, bread, halva, and various fried foods.
The «chaykhana» (teahouse) is a cornerstone of traditional Uzbek society. Always shaded, preferably situated near a cool stream, the chaykhana is a gathering place for social interaction and fraternity. Robed Uzbek men congregate around low tables centered on beds adorned with ancient carpets, enjoying delicious plov, kebab and endless cups of green tea.