Bukhara travel guide

Plov

Bukhara plov—considered Uzbekistan's original recipe—cooked over wood fires at dawn in the old city chaikhanas; lamb tail fat renders into long-grain rice with quince, raisins and whole garlic heads; the Friday pilaf ritual draws every class

Shashlik

Bukhara's lamb and kidney skewers grilled over saxaul wood smoke at the bazaar surrounding Lyabi-Hauz reflecting pool; the Central Asian evening ritual; the smoke drifts over the turquoise domes, making dinner here an atmospheric event

Manti

Bukhara's steamed lamb-pumpkin dumplings vary by neighborhood; near the Ark citadel, dyushbara—tiny dumplings floating in a clear lamb broth—is a soup variant unique to Bukhara; completely different from the large plated dumplings of the capital

Samsa

Flaky triangular tandoor-baked pastries stuffed with lamb and onion; Bukhara's version has a caraway-seed pastry crust that distinguishes it from Samarkand's round version; pulled from the tandir walls at the bazaar market stalls all morning

Lagman

Hand-pulled thick wheat noodles braised with lamb, colored peppers and tomatoes; Bukhara's substantial Uyghur community has made Chinese-influenced lagman a Bukharan staple; the noodle-pulling itself is a performance at open-kitchen restaurants

Green tea

The chaikhana by Lyabi-Hauz pool is Bukhara's social center—green tea served with dried apricots, walnuts and non bread under mulberry trees; the entire tea-house culture here feels continuous with the Silk Road merchants who sat here first