Experience Fulbright

We’ve had quite the time getting adjusted to food here in Uzbekistan. I’ll admit that I’m not a great cook, even in the States, and cooking at home here is proving to be quite the challenge. I have basic kitchen tools, a frying pan, a stock pot, large wooden spoons, silverware, and a large mixing bowl. That’s about it. No food processor, blender, whisk, or any other “fancy” implements.

There’s also not much for processed foods or mixes here. Everything seems to be made from scratch, like my grandmother used to do. I wanted to make chicken tenders but could find any bread crumbs at the store, so I’m spending my Saturday night making my own bread crumbs. Oh and onion powder too since I can’t find that at the store. I was so excited this week to find garlic powder at the large Korzinka (grocery store) in town so at least I don’t have to make that.

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I did succeed in making my homemade fettucine alfredo this week. I made the noodles from scratch so those tasted the same as at home. I figured out the I want the milk that says 10% on it to use as cream and found something a lot like Parmesan cheese at the large Korzinka. My son and I both enjoyed a meal that tasted just like at home. This may become a regular weekly meal, assuming I have an hour to make noodles from scratch.

Given the few successes I’ve had in the kitchen so far, we’ve been eating out a lot. Like, every day. On the bright side, a typical meal usually costs us between $6-$12 total. That’s right. We had a nice meal tonight at a neighbor burger place called Burger Embassy. We had a burger, chicken tenders, fries, onion rings, and an ice tea all for just under $6.

We also found a pizza place just three blocks from our apartment that serves reasonably good pizza. According to the menu, the cheese pizza has “German cheese” on it, then in parentheses it says Gouda. Pretty sure the Dutch would disagree with that description but still, it’s nice to have a nearby place with good pizza.

There’s a large Korean population here in Tashkent so there are quite a few Korean restaurants. We met up with some other Fulbrighters in Tashkent for dinner last night at Seoul, a local Korean place. I have know idea what any of the food was because the menu was in Korean and Russian, but it was very good.

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Of course, we’ve also been taken out by locals we have met. They are excited to share local Uzbek cuisine with us. We’ve tired the plov, a rice and meat dish that is famous throughout Uzbekistan. Our fabulous driver took us out for plov last week. We had a plov made with lamb. It was better than I expected after hearing from my son that an Uzbek kid at school told him NOT to eat the plov. He called it “greasy rice” and told us to steer clear. With that in mind I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. The lamb was very tender and flavorful. It was served with tomato and cucumber salad, fresh & hot local bread, some kind of sour cream, and of course, hot tea.

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We’ve also been treated to a variety of Somsa meals. I first had a potato somsa at the Chorsu bazaar and it was fresh hot, and delicious. Somsa is a type of handheld pocket sandwhich, kind of like a pasty or empanada. My son has discovered that the meat and cheese somsa they sell during the morning break at this school are delicious. I’ve been out for lunch several times to try somsa. I prefer the potato to the pumpkin somsa. The pumpkin ones are in a different type of crust that is more pie like and less flaky. it is also served with ground beef and onions on top. I did NOT care for this one.

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Another local dish we’ve tried is Shashlik. This is Uzbek for shish-kebab. On a related note, they have the word kebab here but it refers to a dish that is more like a meat stew than grilled meat on a skewer. Shashlik is very tasty but the meat here is also quite fatty. They don’t trim the fat off at all and the shashlik is a skewer of alternating chunks of meat and fat. (FYI-locals eat the fat chunks too.)

I thought that my MN trained digestive system would be fine with this diet of meat and starch but…not, so, much with the fat…

Good thing we brought a bottle of Pepto along with us.