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The Fabled Flatbreads of Uzbekistan (2015)
- AIorNot 2mo agoGreat article,
- RajT88 2mo agoMy wife and I own a restaurant. It's a tough business. I feel like there must be more interest among native-born Americans in foreign food these days, based on the fact there's 3 Uzbek restaurants within a couple of neighboring cities (which are maybe 200k people total). There's apparently only ~2000 Uzbek-Americans in all of northern IL! And mostly concentrated over an hour's drive away from where these restaurants are. That said, my wife and I were very interested to try the Tashkent bread. I think this article calls it out - it's better very fresh. It was really good, but not as amazing as we expected (maybe lunch is the time to dine at the Uzbek place closest to us). I still find it amazing that even (probably) family-run restaurants for such a niche cuisine can make a go of it. I take it as a good sign about American dining preferences.
- alephnerd 2mo agoMuch of the Uzbek and Central Asian community is largely located in the Bay, NYC, and DMV. There are around 3 Uzbek restaurants in SF alone.
- YuriNiyazov 2mo agoTheres Sofia (ex-Uzbek) and uzbegim, what’s the third one?
- alephnerd 2mo agoThere used to be a third one a couple blocks away from Sofiya/Halal Dastarkhan in Tenderloin, but I think that may have shut down. There also used to be 2 actual ethnic Uyghur restaurants (not Chinese from Xinjiang) in SF but they shut down as well.
- chadash 2mo agoIt’s wild how NYC trumps every other city for ethnic food by miles. The number of central Asian places (mostly Uzbek and Georgian) is probably closer to 100.
- dyauspitr 2mo agoNYC is just a wonderful place. I lived there for a decade and loved every minute of it. I don’t want to live there anymore because now I have a family and I like having a huge amount of land and living in nature and serenity and all of that but New York City is one of the best places on the planet.
- netsharc 2mo agoI guess if you're a migrant, an ethnic restaurant (is that term politically correct?) is one of the most obvious businesses you can start. The Thai government used to sponsor (not sure if they still do) Thai diaspora who want to open a restaurant in a foreign country, it was their way to market the country and attract tourists.
- RajT88 2mo agoMigrant is actually the wrong word entirely, I think. Migrants move around to follow the work. (Think more like "Nomad") Immigrants resettle in new places. I'm reading more about it, and probably these restaurants survive based on a combination of: - Family run, keeping labor low (labor always number 1 cost) - Central Asian and Muslim customers (much more than just Uzbeks) - Setting up in low-rent locations like strip malls So a few big nights a week can sustain the family business. I guess there's a way it adds up to a profitable business.
- knome 2mo ago>Migrant is actually the wrong word entirely, I think. immigrant, im- (variant of in-) ; migrant into your country emigrant, ex- ; migrant out of your country both are still migrants. there is no specific cause for migration required to be an migrant. you just need to move somewhere new to live.
- RajT88 2mo agoYou are technically correct. The best kind of correct! In terms of common usage though, it's as I said, especially in North America.
- ComputerPerson 2mo agoI believe they were asking whether or not "ethnic" is the correct term. "Foreign food" or "foreign restaurant" seems to be the norm where I live, but maybe I'm uncultured. "Ethnic" wouldn't offend anyone I don't think.
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- oa335 2mo ago"There's apparently only ~2000 Uzbek-Americans in all of northern IL" where did you get this number? does that include chicago, because i live in Chicago area ... seems low.
- RajT88 2mo agohttps://www.neilsberg.com/insights/lists/uzbek-population-in-cook-county-il-by-city/ https://www.neilsberg.com/insights/lists/uzbek-population-in... Figuring some fudge factor too. It could be low - it's hard to find numbers for nationality counts for central Asians broken down by state.
- oa335 2mo agothat websites estimates are definitely too low - e.g. there are definitely more than 40 Uzbek people in Chicago... I've been to 3 uzbek restaurants in Chicago proper myself.
- RajT88 2mo agoBroadly (in another comment I made) I think I've made sense of it. Regardless of the real population, it's probably not just the Uzbek population sustaining these places. That most likely wouldn't be viable. My wife's restaurant for example targets a nationality that is wayyyy more numerous (not Mexicans; that'd be easy enough), and it's tough for us to stay profitable.
- gtg239a 2mo agoIt makes sense and is also a surprise to see that Aramco has a lifestyle publishing arm. That aside, this was a great article. There are some great videos on yt as well showing the baking process. But what those videos don’t show that this article points to is the these Uzbek bakers use natural sour dough leavening. I wish this article also included a recipe for the dough. Another thing this article does that I like is that it describes how to eat these loaves, because it’s hard to guess just by looking at them. Hoping I get a chance to try one of these loaves someday.
- epistasis 2mo agoI've spent a lot of time chasing Uzbek bread and plov on YouTube, so I was very very surprised to see an oil company publishing such a beautiful article. I jsut hope it's not a sign of oil exploitation in Uzbekistan...
- cgh 2mo agoUzbekistan has long been one of the largest natural gas exporters in the world and that is set to increase as they have huge untapped reserves. Same story with oil although they aren’t yet a top exporter, so far as I know.
- schoen 2mo agoApparently there is some active oil production there, but mostly run by Uzbekneftegaz, an Uzbek (not Saudi) company. (I don't follow the Central Asian energy industry, I just found this on the Internet.)
- FpUser 2mo agoI spent about a year of my life in Uzbekistan. Food there is pure heaven
- lstodd 2mo agoYes. It is. And instead of trying to replicate that - it's a learning experience, you learn the world trying that - some advocate for hideous inductive panels. If I were somewhat religious I would say that this is a blasphemy. An unforgivable sin.
- FpUser 2mo agoI did learn few things, everyone loves my Plov ;) No shortage of ingredients in Toronto and proper cookware.
- hydrogen7800 2mo agoI know someone who spent ~ a year in rural Kyrgyzstan, and found the food to be very meat-based, with little variety. Maybe different in the cities, since they enjoyed the trips to Bishkek, and possibly Tashkent, somewhat more.
- FpUser 2mo agoNever ben to Kyrgyzstan. In Uzbekistan - yes lots of meat but also superb veggies and fruits.
- iLemming 2mo agoUzbek cuisine is a fascinating phenomenon because its traditions were shaped by interesting geography, climate and history. It is a double-land-locked country, therefore the lack of seafood and saltwater plants forced them to get inventive. Luckily, the agricultural heaven, which the region was in until the Soviet state's imbecilic decisions killed the Aral Sea, provided enormous variety. Imagine, the nature there even not too long ago was nothing short of amazing. There were species of tigers that went extinct in the 1970s (!) and freshwater fish that had existed nowhere else. The geopolitical placement of the region made it a desirable target for invasions, and indeed that happened many times - Persians, Greeks/Macedonians, Seleucids, Greco-Bactrians, Scythians, Xiongnu, Huns, Arabs, Mongols, Chinese, Russians, etc. And every invader brought their cultural norms, and food traditions. Forced deportation of Koreans (by Stalin) added more to the pile. Fun fact: "traditional" Korean dishes of Central Asia have no equivalents in actual Korean cuisine, because people couldn't grow or find the ingredients endemic to the Korean peninsula, so they had to make their own, unique recipes. Uzbeks take enormous pride in their cuisine and it is ingrained in their DNA - they can easily justify prepping a dish for weeks, then cooking it for over twenty hours, absolutely intending it to be devoured in less than fifteen minutes. That is the [uzbek] way.
- comrade1234 2mo agoMy wife and I started something during Covid where we'd pick a random city in the world (there are websites that do this for you), look at the region's popular/common dishes and pick one to cook for the weekend. Most recent was Mirza Ghasemi: A smoked eggplant dish cooked with garlic, tomatoes, and eggs, from the Caspian Sea area. We would also sometimes make flatbreads from the area but man is it messy to do in your own place with flour flying around everywhere. We do make the flatbreads sometimes but it's usually easier to just buy frozen paratha from the Indian store. Biggest surprise - everything's stew.
- chucksmash 2mo ago> Mirza Ghasemi: A smoked eggplant dish cooked with garlic, tomatoes, and eggs, from the Caspian Sea area. That sounds good. Makes me think of hunkar begendi.
- parl_match 2mo agoeverything's stew. everything's a variation of the 4 easiest ingredients for humans to cultivate plus one or two local or regional specials garlic/onions: aliums that thrive in most climates rice: grass that can be drowned (to fuck off pests) eggs: per day, one chicken produces enough binding enzymes to thicken and modify a meal for 5-8 people veg/seed oils: cooking, flavor, etc and since that's in the caspian sea area, they also have a ready supply of tomatoes and eggplant from centuries of trading with asia
- elgenie 2mo agoTomatoes are a New World crop, so those come from the Colombian exchange rather than some sort of thousands-year-old Silk Road trading history.
- 21asdffdsa12 2mo agostew is also - the most forgiving dish regarding meats.. bad cut? Just stew it more.. this can go so far- that soldiers who where starving where used to cooking down the leather of boots and tournisters..
- d_silin 2mo agoArticle gave me an idea that Indus Valley seals were baker's stamps - that's why the imprinted goods were never found (eaten!).
- julianeon 2mo agoI could probably spend a whole month eating fresh bread there every day and enjoy it more than a Michelin starred restaurant.
- spacemule 2mo agoSeems they've got an IP block on Israel.
- Maksadbek 2mo agoYay, an article about my country is on the HN frontpage!
- rramadass 2mo agoUzbekistan has a very rich history. Samarkand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samarkand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samarkand) is a highly fascinating city added by UNESCO to its "World Heritage List" as Crossroad of Cultures - https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/603/ https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/603/ Justin Marozzi's book Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World is a great read on Timur who i believe is considered almost a god in your country (like Genghis Khan in Mongolia) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur There was also a classic russian movie titled "Nepobedimyy"(1983) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0261099/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0261099/) aka "The Invincible" on one of the founders of the russian martial art of Sambo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambo_(martial_art) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambo_(martial_art)) which was shot in Uzbekistan and features their styles of wrestling. It was almost like a documentary and i loved it for how real and earthy it was both for the martial arts and the locations. Watch on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GLvE5cCFY0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GLvE5cCFY0 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gssvFq0aRas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gssvFq0aRas
- littlekey 2mo agoSurely "naan" would have been a way better transliteration choice than "non", right?
- shrx 2mo agoProbbly a deliberate choice to distinguish it from its Indian sibling?
- debo_ 2mo agoIt seems like a non issue to me.
- roncesvalles 2mo ago1. English transliteration has its own cultural inertia. It's not just about what's most phonetically sensible (that too only for some particular English region: how an American phonetizes non would be different from how a Brit or Aussie would). 2. Don't assume the Uzbeks say this word the same way as the Indians do. It may very well sound closer to "non" in Uzbekistan.
- Aspos 2mo agoUzbeks do say "non".
- walrus01 2mo agoI got a job at the local Uzbek restaurant, but before I could learn all the recipes and secret ingredients, I had to sign a naan disclosure agreement.
- alex000kim 2mo agoNo, Uzbeks themselves use “non” when using Latin alphabet. Fun fact: in the past Uzbek language has been written in arabic, cyrillic, and, since ~2018, in latin. Source: grew up there
- iLemming 2mo agoNo, in Uzbek it is actually "non" and not "naan", "palov" and not "pilav", "somsa" and not "samosa", "tandir" and not "tandoor".
- dron57 2mo agoUzbek food is very popular with all people from the former USSR. So there will be a lot more demand than just Uzbek-Americans.
- xyzelement 2mo agoTotally. I take my family to the kosher Uzbek places here in NYC for just that reason.
- qurren 2mo agoI went to an Uzbek restaurant in SF a couple weeks ago called Sofiya. Highly recommend. Food was so good that I want to visit the country now and probably will within the next year.
- whall6 2mo agoI immediately googled “Uzbek population centers in United States”
- lebuffon 2mo agoThis has some resemblance to albeit the much simpler bread found in Pompei. https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/07/07/ancient-bread/ https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/07/07/ancient-bread/
- ilamont 2mo agoIn the 1990s I travelled through Xinjiang and Gansu in China's northwest. At the time most of the people in rural areas were Uighur, Hui, Tibetan, or other minorities. At one of the Uighur bazaars they were cooking all kinds of breads and skewered meat. I remember asking one of the younger guys about one that looked like a toasted puff pastry and he called it 烤包子 in Mandarin, i.e. "roasted dumpling." It had lamb inside, and it was fantastic, like a lighter version of a Cornish pasty.
- rramadass 2mo agoThere are lots of excellent Youtube videos on the legendary breads of Uzbekistan - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=uzbekistan+breads https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=uzbekistan+brea... Some of the Tandir/Tandoor ovens are large enough to be a walk-in!
- rickydroll 2mo agoOkay, how can I get a sampler pack of all those breads delivered here in the States?
- iLemming 2mo agoHonest answer? This is not simple, because to authentically bake that kind of bread, you'd need the "tandir". No, it's not like Punjabi or Indian traditional tandoors, those are similar yet different. Uzbek one's pronounced similar to "thunder" and it's made of special clay, you really can't order one in some pottery shop here in the US. Some restaurateurs have managed to ship fragmented oven pieces all the way from there to clay them back together here. I reckon only a few authentic tandirs exist in the West, and most of them are on the east coast. Your best bet for getting bona fide Uzbek bread is to ask someone traveling from Uzbekistan to bring you some. Anything else is not guaranteed not to be a pale attempt at a replica. And ask natives, not tourists without a clue - there's a wide variety - Samarkand and Tashkent bread can differ in size, tenderness, texture and taste, Ferghana valley recipes may include goat milk products that may completely change everything about it.
- rickydroll 2mo agoDarn, I was afraid I would have to make a trip just for the food. Although maybe I could turn to a food import business. When I was in Scandinavia a few years ago, I discovered their sausages served in, I think, what is called a French roll (a tube of bread). I briefly considered setting up a food truck called "Scandi Dogs," selling these sausages in the same rolls as they serve in Europe with a side of vanilla ice cream dipped in salted licorice. And yes, that licorice ice cream combination is great once you get past the salt lick impact of the first bite.
- iLemming 2mo ago> I would have to make a trip just for the food Totally. There are too many dishes to count that don't exist and unlikely ever will outside of that country. Traditional sausage Qazi is a must try; Naryin is a dish with customs tied specifically to Tashkent region - they usually don't make it in Samarkand, Bukhara or in the valley. Sumalak gets cooked in huge pots simmering whole night - women take turns to stir it, while singing songs and gossiping. Osh-palov is something worth waking up at 5AM just to go try it first thing in the morning. Khonim is better than any lasagna you ever had. Samosas have so many different shapes and flavors. Kebabs, oh my - that merits its own post. There are traditional cheese balls, for some reason, some westerners love them like crazy - "best thing to have with beers", some find them unsavory. There are different kinds of soups, dozen types of salads, pastries, deserts. Besides traditional Uzbek - Persian/Turkic dishes, there are many ethic communities with their own unique cuisine, e.g. some Armenian dishes are made only there and nowhere else. Azerbaijani chicken gets marinated in special onion sauce for days, making the meat heavenly tender. Uzbek Koreans have their own traditions and Korean dishes that you can't find in the Korean peninsula itself, which confuses Taskent-visiting Koreans. Anyway, culinary tourism to Central Asia is an absolute hit these days. It was difficult and even unsafe to travel before, when it was under harsh dictatorship. The place is still authoritarian, but much more relaxed. Just make sure not to bring any drugs, weed included - and you'll be fine.
- yanhangyhy 2mo agoits pretty rare to see Uzbekistan on global news and even HN frontpage.. i have been there in May, its pretty wonderful. Although English isn't spoken in many places, I had a great impression of the food. I actually went there for the Soviet architecture at first, but the local atmosphere of daily life was also unforgettable. I randomly picked restaurants a few times, and both the meat and the bread (non/naan) were delicious its very safe and the prices are cheap. The only downside is that public toilets are scarce and they all charge a fee, which is really hard to deal with as a Chinese person. I was shocked that the price of using a restroom often exceeded the price of a loaf of naan also this reminds me to refresh my personal blog domain and keep writing blogs.. because i have no where to post travel blogs like this for now.
- 21asdffdsa12 2mo ago2700 bc.. the world was already old in the olden times.. i wish we had a "heroes" journey book- where every text is a link to its inspirations, going all the way back..