Tajik cuisine facts for kids
Tajik cuisine is the traditional food of Tajikistan. It shares many similarities with the foods of nearby countries like Russia, Afghanistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan. The most famous dish is Plov (also called osh), a tasty rice dish. It's the national dish in Tajikistan and other countries in the area. Green tea is the most popular drink.
Delicious Tajik Foods
Plov, also known as osh, is a very special rice dish. It's made with shredded carrots or yellow turnips and pieces of meat. Everything is fried together in oil or mutton fat. This happens in a special round pot called a qazan, which looks like a wok. The meat is cut into cubes, and the carrots are chopped into long, thin strips. The rice gets a yellow or orange color from the carrots and oil. People often eat plov together from one big plate in the middle of the table. They sometimes use their hands, which is a traditional way to enjoy it.
Another traditional dish eaten with hands from a shared plate is qurutob. Its name tells you how it's made: qurut (dried balls of salty cheese) are dissolved in water (ob). This cheesy liquid is then poured over strips of thin, flaky flatbread called patyr. Before serving, onions fried until golden and other fried vegetables are added on top. This dish does not have meat. Qurutob is also considered a national dish.
Almost every meal in Tajikistan includes non, which is a type of flatbread. You can find this bread all over Central Asia. If a Tajik person has other food but no non, they might say they have no food at all! If non falls on the ground, people often pick it up and place it on a high spot for birds or people who need it. There's a belief that you should not put non upside down, as it might bring bad luck. It's also bad luck to put anything on top of non, unless it's another piece of non.
For breakfast, people usually have tea, kulcha (a type of Tajik flatbread), or non with butter. Other breakfast items can include kolbasa (a sausage-like meat), smetana (sour cream), kaymak (a rich cream), jam, and eggs. In the summer, fresh fruits like berries, grapes, apples, peaches, and apricots are also enjoyed. Kompot, a sweet fruit drink, is often served as well.
Traditional Tajik soups often feature meat and vegetables. Examples include shurbo and piti. There are also meat soups with noodles, such as laghmon and ugro. Other popular dishes, often eaten as a quick meal or a starter, include manti (steamed meat dumplings) and tushbera (small dumplings similar to pelmeni). Sambusa is a triangular pastry filled with meat and onion or pumpkin and onion, baked in a special oven called a tandoor. Belyashi are deep-fried cakes made from dough and filled with minced meat.
Yummy Dairy Treats
Dairy foods are often served as part of the appetizers in a Tajik meal. People usually scoop them up with pieces of flatbread. These include chaka (a sour milk dish), thick yogurt, and kaymak (a very rich clotted cream). Qurut balls, made from dried salty cheese, can be eaten as a snack or with cold drinks. While not a traditional Tajik drink, kefir, a drinking yogurt, is often served with breakfast.
Fresh Fruits and Veggies
In the summer, Tajikistan has a huge amount of fresh produce and fruit. Its grapes and melons were once famous across the entire former Soviet Union. The local market, called a bazaar, also sells delicious pomegranates, apricots, plums, peaches, apples, pears, figs, and persimmons.
Drinks in Tajikistan
Tea is served with almost every meal. It is also often offered between meals to guests and visitors as a sign of welcome. Tea is served hot in a china pot with a lid. People drink it with sugar from small cups without handles, called piola. Because tea is so popular, the choykhona, or teahouse, is a very common place for people to gather in Tajikistan. It's a bit like a Western-style coffee house.
