Uzbekistan Street Food

In Uzbekistan, street food means a cauldron of plov the size of a wheelbarrow and the smell of tandoor-baked samsa pulling you toward the bazaar.

5 street food dishes from Uzbekistan — what each one is, why it's made that way, and what to expect when you order it.

Signature street foods of Uzbekistan

🥒 Summer Cooldown · Yogurt & Herb Soup-Drink Chalop It sits somewhere between a drink and a cold soup — yogurt thinned with ice water and loaded with diced cucumber, radish, and fresh herbs. Chalop is a chilled yogurt drink whisked with cold water until smooth, then stirred with diced cucumber, radish, spring onion, and herbs like dill and cilantro. Rooted in Central Asia's… Rice Pilaf · National Dish Plov (Osh/Palov) Whole heads of garlic go into the pot unpeeled, and one cauldron can feed hundreds of people at once. Plov is rice cooked in a wide cauldron called a kazan with fried meat, carrots, onions, and whole garlic bulbs, layered so the rice steams in the rendered fat and juices. It's ladled fresh… Baked Pastry · Tandoor-Fired Samsa (سمسا) Traditional samsa isn't baked in a tray at all — it's stuck to the inner wall of a clay tandoor and peeled off once golden. Samsa are flaky, folded pastries stuffed with fillings like fatty minced meat and onion, pumpkin, or herbs, then baked against the scorching walls of a clay tandoor until the crust… Street Food · Tandoor Bread Non (Uzbek Tandoor Bread) Every non loaf carries a decorative stamped pattern pressed into its center with a tool called a chekich — practical as well as pretty, since it… Non is a round, faintly domed bread baked against the scorching inner wall of a clay tandoor oven until the base is crisp and the edges are blistered and chewy. Bakers pile it high at… Grilled Skewers · Charcoal Classic Shashlik (Шашлык) Traditional Uzbek shashlik skewers are forged flat, not round, so the threaded meat can't spin loose while a vendor flips it over the coals. Cubes of marinated lamb or beef — sometimes fatty minced meat pressed straight onto the skewer — are grilled over glowing charcoal until charred outside and juicy within, then handed over…

More street food in Asia

• Mongolia
• Thailand
• Vietnam
• India
• Japan
• Indonesia
• South Korea
• China
• Philippines
• Malaysia
• Singapore
• Cambodia
• Laos
• Myanmar
• Sri Lanka
• Pakistan
• Bangladesh
• Nepal
• Bhutan
• Saudi Arabia
• United Arab Emirates
• Lebanon
• Israel
• Jordan
• Iran
• Kazakhstan
• Maldives
• Brunei