Coming from India/Nepal and their veggie-heavy, spicy, oily cuisine, I don’t think I pooped for several days after arriving in Central Asia. Outside of large population centers, it can be downright impossible to find a fresh vegetable, and in the remotest places, I lived off of potatoes, bread, jam, and butter for days at a time. That said, there is still a lot of super delish stuff to eat around here, so get ready for some photos!
Updated!
Beer is food right? Central Asia is the beginning/end of good beer, depending on which direction you’re heading.
The upside-down M (W?) makes a “SH” sound in Russian. So this is a Shawarma stand with a Satanic Mickey D’s M as it’s logo.
pumpkin toffee rolled up with raisins and walnuts. Awesome bike snack. And look at my crusty fingers!
Lots of dill in this noodle salad.
Yes, they do have some fruit in Central Asia.
Plov! Like a hearty version of fried rice, a staple of Uzbekistan.
Fried spam and eggs was often what was on order at middle of nowhere trucker stops.
That or meat and onion dumplings, samsas.
I didn’t eat all these shashlik by myself.
Mmmm chickpea and fat soup.
Another plov, more carrots this time.
There are some fresh veggies too, like tomato and cucumber salad, salted with, you guessed it, dill.
Beets and potatoes with thyme and dill.
Dolma, or stuffed leaves/peppers.
Beans and rice with tomatoes and peppers. and dill.
Dilly fried cheese balls!
I guess this is basically coleslaw.
Eggplant, beans, rice, dill.
A nice bowl of laghman.
Dill-infused noodles in a sour cream sauce smothered in meat and gravy.
Noodles and mutton shards with potato.
A hearty grain soup.
Tea and dumplings in an oily broth with dill ketchup and yogurt.
Chicken leg over rice with julienned carrots.
Some kind of spiced-up gelatin noodle salad. Kinda gross.
Shashlik, or what we ‘muricans might call a kebab. This is not the best specimen for a photo, I’ll try again later don’t worry.
Fresh strawberry jam, real honey, and super heavy cream made just outside.
Goulash.
Ah so this is where they make the bread!
A good spread of mutton and potatoes, yogurt, cherry jam, and salad. And of course bread.
More goulash!
The obligatory “try a hamburger in a foreign country and laugh at how terrible it is". This one wasn’t so bad actually. Must be getting closer to home.
Creamy chicken pasta.
Mutton and potato shorba with chives.
Fried mushrooms with dill and chives. This was totally awesome, and the first shrooms I’d had in quite a while.
Another shorba.
Mmmm tea.
This is my camping setup. I' gots rice and lentils, onions and garlic, spices, salt, oil, everything I need for a delicious healthy meal. I chop everything up on the bottom of the frying pan you see on the left, toss it in the pot with the rice and beans soaking, add spices and oil, simmer for freakin’ ever on my stove, and voila!
Pizza emerges! Just kidding, but actually one night in Dushanbe I made pizza from one of the local round breads and it turned out great.
Another home cooking adventure. Veggie laghman and Baltika 3. Good combo.
Beer is food right? Central Asia is the beginning/end of good beer, depending on which direction you’re heading.
The upside-down M (W?) makes a “SH” sound in Russian. So this is a Shawarma stand with a Satanic Mickey D’s M as it’s logo.
pumpkin toffee rolled up with raisins and walnuts. Awesome bike snack. And look at my crusty fingers!
Lots of dill in this noodle salad.
Yes, they do have some fruit in Central Asia.
Plov! Like a hearty version of fried rice, a staple of Uzbekistan.
Fried spam and eggs was often what was on order at middle of nowhere trucker stops.
That or meat and onion dumplings, samsas.
I didn’t eat all these shashlik by myself.
Mmmm chickpea and fat soup.
Another plov, more carrots this time.
There are some fresh veggies too, like tomato and cucumber salad, salted with, you guessed it, dill.
Beets and potatoes with thyme and dill.
Dolma, or stuffed leaves/peppers.
Beans and rice with tomatoes and peppers. and dill.
Dilly fried cheese balls!
I guess this is basically coleslaw.
Eggplant, beans, rice, dill.
A nice bowl of laghman.
Dill-infused noodles in a sour cream sauce smothered in meat and gravy.
Noodles and mutton shards with potato.
A hearty grain soup.
Tea and dumplings in an oily broth with dill ketchup and yogurt.
Chicken leg over rice with julienned carrots.
Some kind of spiced-up gelatin noodle salad. Kinda gross.
Shashlik, or what we ‘muricans might call a kebab. This is not the best specimen for a photo, I’ll try again later don’t worry.
Fresh strawberry jam, real honey, and super heavy cream made just outside.
Goulash.
Ah so this is where they make the bread!
A good spread of mutton and potatoes, yogurt, cherry jam, and salad. And of course bread.
More goulash!
The obligatory “try a hamburger in a foreign country and laugh at how terrible it is". This one wasn’t so bad actually. Must be getting closer to home.
Creamy chicken pasta.
Mutton and potato shorba with chives.
Fried mushrooms with dill and chives. This was totally awesome, and the first shrooms I’d had in quite a while.
Another shorba.
Mmmm tea.
This is my camping setup. I' gots rice and lentils, onions and garlic, spices, salt, oil, everything I need for a delicious healthy meal. I chop everything up on the bottom of the frying pan you see on the left, toss it in the pot with the rice and beans soaking, add spices and oil, simmer for freakin’ ever on my stove, and voila!
Pizza emerges! Just kidding, but actually one night in Dushanbe I made pizza from one of the local round breads and it turned out great.
Another home cooking adventure. Veggie laghman and Baltika 3. Good combo.
