Tajikistan — Food and Dining
Cuisine
Traditional Tajik meals start with sweet dishes such as halwa and tea and then progress to soups and meat before finishing with plov.
Things to know: There are no restaurants operating in the evenings except for the one in the Hotel Oktyabrskaya which shuts at 2200.
National specialties:
• Plov is made up of scraps of mutton, shredded yellow turnip and rice, fried in a large wok, and is a staple dish in all the Central Asian republics.
• Shashlyk (skewered chunks of mutton grilled over charcoal, served with raw sliced onions) and lipioshka (round unleavened bread) are often sold on street corners and served in restaurants.
• Manty (large noodle sacks of meat), samsa (samosas) and chiburekki (deep-fried dough cakes) are all popular as snacks.
• Shorpur is a meat and vegetable soup; laghman is similar to shorpur, but comes with noodles.
• Pirmeni, originating in Ukraine, are small boiled noodle sacks of meat and vegetables similar to ravioli, sometimes in a vegetable soup, sometimes not.
National drinks:
• Tea or chai is the most widespread drink on offer and can be obtained almost anywhere.
• Beer, wine, vodka, brandy and sparkling wine (shampanski) are intermittently available in many restaurants. If the restaurant is unable to supply it, it is acceptable to bring your own.
• Kefir, a thick drinking yogurt, is often served with breakfast.
Nightlife
There is a dollar bar in the basement of the Hotel Tajikistan which is open some evenings. The Ayni opera and ballet theater on Prospekt Rudaki is still operating, albeit with a reduced program of matinees. The streets of Dushanbe are usually deserted by 2000.
Featured Tours to Tajikistan
Route of the Caravans
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