Blog
Useful articles about trips, tips and service updates
Food to Bring Home from Uzbekistan: Edible Souvenirs
Plov spices, dried fruit and nuts, halva and parvarda, Samarkand bread and tea: a list of edible souvenirs and tips on getting them home in one piece.
Plov and Bread Cooking Classes: Where to Learn in Uzbekistan
The kinds of cooking classes on offer in Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara, what you will make with your own hands and how to choose a class you will enjoy.
Dastarkhan: Table Etiquette in Uzbekistan
Invited into an Uzbek home? Here is how to treat bread and tea, where to sit, when to start eating and how to politely decline a third plate of plov.
Oshkhona: How to Eat Cheaply Like a Local
Everyday canteens with kazans at the door, plov days and hearty soups: how an oshkhona menu works, when to go and roughly what lunch costs.
Tashkent Street Food: What to Try at the Stalls
Tandoor samsa, fried gumma, boiled corn, smoky shashlik and soda with syrup: a guide to what the capital eats on the go.
Vegetarian in Uzbekistan: What to Order and What to Say
Uzbek cuisine is famous for its meat, yet vegetarians will not go hungry: vegetable dishes, soups, pastries, dairy and a few phrases that make ordering much easier.
Uzbek Breakfast: What People Eat in the Morning
Kaymak with warm flatbread, tandoor samsa, cold naryn and morning plov: how people start the day in Tashkent, Samarkand and beyond.
Food on the Road Across the Kyzylkum: What to Pack
There are almost no cafes between Bukhara and Khiva, so here is what to pack, where the rare food stops appear and how to keep your water.
Where to Eat on the Road Over Kamchik to the Fergana Valley
Cafes by the pass, roadside shashlik and fruit from the verge: how to eat on the way to the valley without spoiling your trip.
Where to Eat on the Road from Tashkent to Samarkand
Roadside cafes, samsa in Jizzakh and teahouses by the highway: where to stop for lunch on the way to Samarkand and how to pick a safe place.
Uzbek Wine: Winemaking in Samarkand and the Tashkent Region
The country's oldest wineries, local grape varieties and advice on where to hold a tasting without breaking rules or getting behind the wheel afterwards.
Dried Fruit and Nuts: How to Choose at the Bazaar
How to tell quality dried apricots, raisins and almonds from dyed ones, roughly what they cost and how to carry dried fruit so it arrives home in good shape.