Dushanbe travel guide

Plov (osh)

Tajikistan's cooking centerpiece—long-grain rice cooked in rendered lamb tail fat (kurdjuk) with caramelized carrots, whole garlic heads and chickpeas; simpler than Uzbek plov but the fat renders into something deeply satisfying

Qurutob

Tajikistan's uniquely national dish—stale flatbread soaked in qurt (dried sour cheese) broth, topped with fresh herbs, onion, tomato and vegetable oil; ancient, communal and found nowhere else in Central Asia; eaten by hand from a shared dish

Shashlik

Lamb or beef marinated in onion juice and cumin, grilled over saxaul wood coals from the steppe; Dushanbe's shashlik choiskhana stalls open after Asr prayer when charcoal smoke fills the streets around the Barakat bazaar

Manti

Tajikistan's steam-cooked dumplings with minced lamb and yellow pumpkin filling; large, soft and served with smetana from bamboo steamers; shared at Dushanbe family restaurants from large communal steamers from noon until they run out

Sambusa

Tajik samosa—crescent-shaped flaky pastry filled with lamb, onion and tail fat, baked in a clay tandir oven; pulled from the tandir walls still sizzling; sold at Dushanbe's Barakat bazaar from dawn at one somon each

Green tea

Tajikistan's absolute beverage—drunk without milk from small ceramic piolas throughout every waking hour; the chai-khana tea house is the true center of Tajik male social and intellectual life; the tea ceremony here predates Islam