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Writer's pictureЧайхана Самарканд

Uzbek cuisine, what it is & where it came from - Chaikhana Samarkand

Uzbek cuisine is one of the most interesting gastronomic parts of the world. It carries the traditions of many peoples. Nomadic traditions left the rules of cooking meat, the Arabs taught how to cook #shurpa, the Persians taught how to handle water and rice, the Chinese brought the traditions of tea and a variety of spices. But more on that.


The traditions of nomadic peoples were meat - boiled, fried, dried and dried. So people have learned to cook meat on a smoldering fire. Until now, #tandir kebab is one of the favorite dishes in the East. But we must agree that not every lamb or beef can be suitable, and not every master can cook it to be delicious.


Готують тандир-кебаб
Tandir kebab. Uzbek cuisine

Nomadic traditions were due to a certain way of life. So there was little of what we mean by stocks in the pantry, procurement or purchase of goods for cooking. It was prepared from a minimal set of products, from what was at hand or stored and stored in the steppe and desert.


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Nomadic and semi-nomadic people have learned to store meat for a long time. The meat was cut into strips, salted and dried in the shade. In Uzbekistan, such a dish as #kazy is very common. Homemade horse meat sausage. A tradition that has come down to the present day from ancient times. The meat in this sausage is cut into long strips and stored in a dried form. And when you need to cook, just boil.


Узбецька кухня - кази
Uzbek cuisine - kazi

Uzbek cuisine has several such examples. Milk, they also learned to store, without the cold, which was not in the hot desert climate. The milk was fermented, salted and seasoned with spices. Milk balls were made and dried. Such milk salt balls could be stored for months.


Продають курт
You can buy kurt at the bazaars.

Kurt, as they are called, is now sold in the markets of the East. You can see very interesting, neatly laid out lines in the form of a pyramid at the market Chors or Alai Bazaar in Tashkent. Even melons have learned to dry and store. Dried melon can be tasted today even in Ukraine, you just have to look among the Eastern spices and sweets in the markets.


The spices and oriental teas came through trade routes

If you used to drink water and milk from a goat or a cow, you have been drinking tea for some time. It is possible that this period dates back to the reign of the Turkic Khaganate, when he was a vassal of the Tang dynasty from China. The same dynasty, during the reign of which tea from a healing solution turned into just a drink and spread around the world.


Later, when settled peoples appeared, people learned the art of crafts and

cultivate fields, retain water in the desert and…. to grow in the desert rice. Where did rice come from in Central Asia is another topic. But to call #pilaf still became more likely from the Persian. Shish kebab was brought by Turkic-speaking tribes. A #manti and #lagman came and remained on the menu of every family from the Mongols and Uighurs.

However, when all this was inherited by a number of changes of epochs and dynasties, the Uzbeks themselves as an ethnic group and the concept of Uzbek cuisine did not yet exist.

Only in the 13th century were there regions that spoke the Chagatai dialect of the Turkic language, which later became known as Uzbek. And then there was Uzbek Khan and Uzbek writing and literature began to appear. In the 16th century, dynasties such as the Sheibanids in Bukhara, the Khiva and Kokand khans did not call themselves Uzbeks. The created country of Uzbekistan united the present lands and thus the concepts of Uzbek life, traditions and Uzbek cuisine began to appear.



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