Besh Qozon Plov Centre and What to Eat in Tashkent

There is an old Uzbek proverb that captures the national passion for rice pilaf: "If you have to die, let it be from plov." In Tashkent, eating plov (osh) is a joyful social theatre centred on Besh Qozon (the Central Asian Plov Centre) in the northern Yunusobod district, alongside clay-oven bakeries, smoky kebab mangals and traditional teahouses (chaikhanas).

How to visit Besh Qozon (Central Asian Plov Centre)

Take the Green Metro line to Bodomzor or Shahriston (or a short Yandex Go taxi) to reach Besh Qozon, which sits directly beneath the 375-metre spire of Tashkent TV Tower. Literally meaning "Five Cauldrons", Besh Qozon consists of a vast dining hall and courtyard attached to a smoky kitchen gallery where visitors can walk right up to the roaring wood fires and watch the master cooks (oshpaz) at work. Starting in the early morning, the cooks layer lamb and beef, heaps of julienned yellow and orange carrots, onions, laser rice, chickpeas, golden raisins and whole bulbs of garlic into colossal cast-iron kazans capable of feeding a thousand diners at once. Arrive between late morning and early afternoon when the wooden lids are lifted:

• What to order: ask for a plate of Tashkent To'y Oshi (Festive Wedding Plov) topped with horsemeat sausage (kazy), a hard-boiled quail egg and tender braised meat, accompanied by a sharp tomato-and-onion salad (achichuk) and a pot of hot green tea.

Five other Uzbek specialities to eat in Tashkent

Beyond midday plov, explore Tashkent's food alleys in Chorsu Bazaar, garden restaurants along the Ankhor Canal and bistros around Amir Timur Square and Oybek:

• Tandir Samsa (and Jizzakh Samsa): flaky puff-pastry parcels stuffed with hand-chopped lamb (or pumpkin and spring greens in March and April), onions and wild cumin, baked against the glowing charcoal walls of a clay tandir oven.
• Tashkent Non (Patir and Obi Non): glossy circular flatbreads stamped with iron pins and brushed with milk or sesame seeds; tear warm non by hand at the table and never lay a loaf upside down.
• Shashlik (Kabob): skewers of marinated lamb ribs, minced beef (lyulya) or liver grilled over fruitwood embers and served beneath pickled white onions with sumac and coriander.
• Lagman and Chuchvara: elastic hand-pulled wheat noodles served either in a fragrant broth of diced beef, peppers and radish (suyuq lagman) or wok-fried (qovurma lagman), plus tiny pinched meat dumplings (chuchvara).
• Naryn and Manti: Tashkent's signature cold celebratory dish of paper-thin hand-sliced noodles tossed with cured horsemeat and cumin alongside a cup of warm broth, or steamed manti dumplings.