Food across the 5 Stans: one culinary family ...

... five personalities

First of all, maybe with the exception of brekkie, all meals are a feast. At least that's our experience over the last three weeks.

One of the most striking things is how often the food feels familiar — and yet it's not quite the same. Across the five Stans, we have repeatedly encountered meats, bread, noodles, rice, onions, tomatoes, aubergines, carrots and plenty of herbs (especially dill), but the combinations and cooking methods change from country to country.

The reason is geography and history with noticeable differences caused by ☝️nomadic traditions where food has to be practical, filling and based around livestock, especially in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
☝️Persian influence with rice prepared with meat, vegetables, dried fruit or nuts and use of plenty of fresh herbs and fruits, specially in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
☝️Soviet history - soups, salads, pickles, potatoes, mayonnaise-based salads and bread

Also, ingredients, recipes and cooking methods travelled along the Silk Road, with merchants, soldiers, nomads and migrating communities transferring dishes between China, Uighurs, Persia, India, the Middle East and the steppes from east to west and vice versa.

There are several dishes that connect the region, where one can essentially eat the same dish under slightly different names, with flavours and preparation changing slightly between the countries, e.g.

☝️Plov — rice cooked with meat, onions and carrots, usually with mild spices.
☝️Dumplings - filled traditionally with minced meat (lamb or beef) and onion.
☝️Beshbarmak (five fingers) - literally associated with eating with the fingers -
consisting of wide sheets of home made pasta/noodles, boiled meat and onions, traditionally horse or mutton.
☝️Kazy / Qazi - horse meat sausage is particularly important in nomadic influenced cuisine
☝️Baursak / Boorsok — small pieces of dough fried until golden. They look rather like doughnuts without the sweetness. They are eaten with meals, alongside tea, or simply as a snack. But can be eaten as dessert when served with sweet cream
☝️Qurut / Kurt - fermented milk/yoghurt, intensely salty, dry and frankly pretty disgusting. It has been historically used as food that could survive long journeys across the steppe.
☝️Samsa - pastry parcels filled traditionally with lamb, beef or chicken and onion, and baked rather than deep-fried.
☝️Ishlekli - traditional stuffed flatbread or meat pie originating from Turkmenistan.
☝️Lagman - noodle dish with hand-pulled noodles, meat and vegetables in a spicy broth or sauce.
☝️Shashlik — skewered grilled meat — is common throughout Central Asia and we tried plenty of it.
☝️Chak-chak - a sweet treat made of deep-fried dough bound together with a hot honey syrup.

Tables at lunch and dinner are laden with salads, soups, breads, dumplings - and these are just the starters - followed by a variety of main courses such as plov, shashlik, lagman, grilled meat,
beshbarmak, samsa plus something fried - like baursak or boorsok - and then desserts - Chak-chak, cheesecake, fresh fruit. All washed down with gallons of black or green tea.

So meals are rarely just about the main course. Bread, salads, tea and small accompaniments fill up the table.

We thoroughly enjoyed the food on this trip, so much so that I will have added a few kilos 🙈

... the countless 🍻🍻🍻 surely didn't help either 🤣Read more