Fascinating journey for foodies!

Uzbek cuisine is perhaps one of the most diverse in the whole Orient! Over hundreds of years, Uzbekistan, located on the trade caravan trails of the Great Silk Road, played host to traders from East and West, who brought with them the tastes from their native lands and shared with local people the best-kept culinary secrets. Thus Uzbek cuisine evolved from a multitude of influences and acquired new dishes, which with the lapse of time has virtually become national Uzbek dishes.
Each dish has its own history, traditions and culinary techniques. The most well-known and favourite Uzbek dish and its staple food is undoubtedly pilov. Just think: there are about thousand recipes of this dish. You will have opportunity to sample pilov of Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Fergana and Tashkent, and to decide which one is the most delicious. The pilov is considered a trivial and at the same time a festive dish. Neither national holiday nor birthday party or social occasion can go without it!
Besides pilov, there is a huge list of other no less exotic dishes. The tour is designed to give you the exclusive experiences that best capture the unique food and culinary traditions of Uzbek and Kyrgyz, Tajik and Georgian, Armenian and Chinese, Russian and Korean cuisines. In addition you will be enchanted by the sweet aroma of juicy fruits tempting everyone to taste them. It is not without reason that Uzbekistan is often called the country of fruits! And abundance of the national sweeties will gladden anyone who has sweet tooth.
With the focus on Oriental gastronomy, this tour will give you an opportunity to immerse yourself in Uzbekistan’s rich history and culture, to learn about treasured architecture of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva – the fabled cities still keeping the memory of Tamerlane, Alexander the Great, Genghis-khan, and many trade caravans of the Great Silk Road. Tall elegant minarets, grandiose madrassahs and mosques will be branded in your mind for long. But first of all, this travel will be appreciated by gourmets. Open for yourself the world full of oriental delicacies!

Itinerary:

Day 1. Arrival to Tashkent.
Day 2. Tashkent - Samarkand transfer.
Day 3. Samarkand.
Day 4. Samarkand - Bukhara transfer.
Day 5. Bukhara.
Day 6. Bukhara - Khiva.
Day 7. Khiva.
Day 8. Khiva - Urgench - Tashkent.
Day 9. Tashkent/departure.

detailed tour description »»

The cost tour includes:

The cost tour does not include:

to the top

Detailed tour description:

Day 1. Arrival to Tashkent.
At Tashkent international airport you will be given a hearty welcome and transferred to a cozy hotel.
Today you will see Tashkent - the capital and a up-and-coming business metropolis of Uzbekistan. Located at the place where agricultural oases meet boundless Eurasian steppes, Tashkent boasts two thousand years of history. Every visitor of Tashkent is amazed at its unique peculiarity. You may ask what is so specific about this city. The point is that this fascinating city combines two seemingly discordant things: antiquity and modernity. You will see here many new high-rise buildings, parks buried in verdure, big squares with numerous flower-beds, streets full of cars constantly speeding by. In general, you will see everywhere the signs of a fast-developing city, which advances by leaps and bounds. Curiously enough, at the same time you can meet ancient buildings which match well and even add certain flavour to this unforgettable city.
For example, one of the city districts is called Old City – “Chor-Su”. And indeed, here you will see ancient madrassahs, mosques and huge, real Oriental bazaar. Chor-Su Bazaar dazzles with its bright lively colours. Ceramics and carpets, articles of applied arts and foodstuff, fruits and vegetables, “lepyoshka” (oriental flat bread), and oriental spices – everything is on display! If you have a wish to buy something - you should go to Chor-su bazaar. Here you can find everything to dress yourself from head to feet, as well as to sate your appetite. There is everything here!
After sightseeing tour you will be offered a delicious lunch (don’t forget, this is a gastronomic tour). Aromatic shourpa (national soup) with many spicy salads will be served up to you. As a rule, shourpa is cooked of lamb, but chicken will also do. Moreover, sometimes shourpa is made of fish; in this case it is called “asy-sorpa”. A big amount of vegetables, fresh herbs and oriental spices are included into the recipe of this dish. For dessert you can delight in juicy watermelon or cantaloupe. It is said that nowhere else in the world one can find such a sweet and aromatic melon as in Uzbekistan! Believe it or not, this is true. After lunch our experienced guide will take you to the most interesting sites of Tashkent and will tell you many amusing stories.
You can spend the evening in the restaurant with national show-programme. Pretty girls will dance to oriental tunes and everything round you will look so exotic, colourful, so oriental-like, as if in a fairy-tale! For main course you can savour that very remarkable dish – pilov. Traditionally it is made of rice and mutton, though beef, pork or chicken can be sometimes used, too. Pilov possesses a specific flavour, being saturated with spices and smoke, as it is cooked on open fire. In Uzbekistan they say that genuine pilov can be cooked only by man. It is so indeed. Pilov is to be accompanied by various appetizers: kazy, khasyp, somsa, meat rolls, aychik-chuk (national salad), lepyoshka etc. After such a substantial dinner there is nothing else to do but to have a rest in a hotel.

Day 2. Tashkent - Samarkand transfer.
After breakfast in hotel you will start for Samarkand. On arrival take a short rest in the hotel, and then let our guide take you for a stroll through this stunning city. It is worth to cross oceans and seas to see this majestic place. Few cities on the globe can boast the age of 25 centuries, alluring beauty, and unique appearance. Samarkand has all these. It was not without reason that poets and historians of the past called this city “A precious gem of the oriental Muslim world”, “Eden of the Ancient Orient”, “The beauty of the universe”, “Rome of the Orient”… Samarkand is the bearer of the greatest historical and cultural traditions of Uzbek people.
The sightseeing round this enchanting ancient city will certainly put you in high spirits and to make your impression more vivid you will be taken for lunch to a real Uzbek chaikhona – teahouse. This time you will be offered manty – delicious steamed dumplings which indeed are finger-licking good. This is a popular meat dish among Central Asian nations. Traditionally the filling for manty is minced meat with onion and spices, which is then wrapped in thinly rolled out paste. But there exist variations and filling for manty can be made of potato, pumpkin and other stuff. Strange as it may seem, Korean salads can be a perfect complement to this traditional Uzbek dish. Uzbekistan is a multinational country and different cuisines have interwoven like the vine whose sprouts cling onto each other thus making the stem solid. Chili-spiked Korean carrot salad (morkovcha), spicy Korean cabbage salad, Korean noodles salad, laminaria, marinated mushrooms and many others Korean delicacies will go well with Uzbek dishes. And to complete this all you will be served traditional tea. Local people drink green and black tea depending on the region and season. In summer people prefer to drink green tea, because it quenches thirst, whereas in winter it is mostly black tea which makes you warm and relaxed on frosty days!
Satisfied and pleased with yourself now you can continue city tour. There are so many places still to see. Samarkand breathes history which has retained the joys and sorrows of many generations. Here you can immerse in the past, feel the breath of antiquity. The fascinating stories of the local guide will take you through every page of the life of this legendary city.
The busy day is coming to a close and it’s time for evening meal. You are offered to make a short trip to a village in the suburbs to taste barra – a dish made from two-week-old lamb cooked in oriental oven - tandyr. Another don’t-miss dish is shashlyk (shish kebab), a favourite both in Asia and in Caucasus. It can be easily made from any type of meat or fish. The meat is cut in cubes which then are skewered and roasted over an open fire on the chargrill. Shashlyk is garnished with fresh vegetables, pickles, sauces, and fresh herbs, of course. Shashlyk can be eaten hot or cool. This is a perfect snack for strong drinks. In the Orient the appropriate drink for shashlyk is red or white wine. By the way, the local wines are mostly sweet.
Today’s dinner accompanied by oriental tunes will certainly be to your liking. The night creeps up and you will be taken to the hotel for overnight. Tomorrow a new day will come and it will be no less interesting and busy.

Day 3. Samarkand.
Today you will proceed with sightseeing of Samarkand and visit the famous monuments of this fascinating city. Registan square is on the top of the list. In the past this square was the city’s busiest place, whereas today it is filled with crowds of tourists spellbound by the grandeur and elegance of three madrassahs enclosing the square on three sides: Ulugbek’s madrassah (15th century), Sher-Dor and Tillya-Kari madrassahs (17th century). Other attractions which are on your “menu” today are architectural complex Shakhi-Zinda (the 10th – 19th centuries), Gur-Emir mausoleum (15th century), Afrosiab site, Saint Daniil grave, Bibi-khanum mosque (early 15th century), which suffered destructive impact of wars and earthquakes, and many other monuments that have retained the spirit of antiquity.
You will finish off your morning sightseeing with a fabulous lunch. The local cuisine offers much to choose from. You can start with lagman – a dish which is wide-spread all over Central Asia. There exist Uzbek, Tajik and Dungan varieties of this dish. The main ingredient for lagman is pasta made from stretched dough. Some people call lagman a noodle soup, others consider it to be the main course as sometimes it is made too thick. Lagman consists of two essential ingredients cooked separately and then brought together into one dish before being served up. The first ingredient is pasta itself, whereas the second is so called vajja which imparts the dish with a peculiar taste and aroma. Vajja is a kind of sauce made of meat, vegetables and herbs. You will certainly like it!
You should also sample the pride of Samarkand - lepyoshka (oriental flat bread). The authentic Samarkand lepyoshka should be baked in national oven - tandyr. It is rather thick and can be kept for a long time without losing its savoury smell.
If you happen to be in Samarkand during “wedding” season, which traditionally is autumn, when sweet juicy fruits ripen, you will undoubtedly be invited to a wedding party. People here are very hospitable. And you will get a good chance to taste many local delicacies: noodles, meat dumplings- chuchvara, kazan-kabob, beshbarmak, traditional pilov, dumlyama and many other things! And what a variety of sweets! There are pakhlava and rakhat-lukum, pulpy dried apricots and raisins, and candied nuts. The table is groaning with fruits: soft pears, crunching apples, persimmon, pomegranate, juicy peaches, melons and watermelons. You don’t know where to look first! The list can be too long. So it’s better come and taste for yourself.

Day 4. Samarkand - Bukhara transfer.
Today you will depart for Bukhara. Oh, Blessed Bukhara! You are the gem of Central Asia! On arrival you will have a short rest in the hotel and then you will start your exploration of Bukhara - the city of poetry and fairy tales! Here the labyrinth of the city streets is home to many legends; the vertical silhouette of its minarets represents the flight of man’s genius, and every stone in the lace-like brickwork is covered with the dust of eternity. Bukhara has won the fame of a city-museum, its romantic image attracts tourists from all over the world.
In Bukhara you can perceive the Orient in full. At every step you will encounter a trader offering fine craftwork: astrakhan hats, masterly embroidered suzani, national shirts, skullcaps, knives and artfully decorated jewelry! This urge for trading seems to be inherited from the ancestors who used to travel in caravans along the trails of the great Silk road.
After rather informative sightseeing you will be taken to a popular cafe of Bukhara -“Lyabi Khauz”. Here you will be welcomed with a big salver full of salads. For example, the salad made of eggplant with sweet pepper, soy sauce and spices. Or salad made of apples and pumpkin, dressed with lemon juice. Sounds strange, doesn’t it?
For main course you can order nakhutshurbo – meat soup with peas and vegetables cooked in cassolette. We also recommend you to taste zharkovi goushty - roast meat with potato. In case you’d rather eat vegetables, you have every reason to sample noodle soup with wine sauce. This is soup made of many different vegetables and thin ribbon-like strips of pasta. But the real zest is wine sauce and mint leaves which give the soup a peculiar, piquant taste.
Today’s sightseeing includes the visit to some most popular of Bukhara’s landmarks. On our itinerary today are Samanid’s mausoleum and Ark Fortress. A majestic fortress and citadel, ideally blending with the surrounding landscape, Ark appeared in the early Middle Ages and throughout its history it withstood many a siege. It was here that royal palaces and family mosques of Emir from Bukhara were located.
After satisfying your thirst for antiquity, you can go to the national cafe to sample something tasty, as it’s already time for dinner. Bukhara is well-known for its pilov and somsa. While in Bukhara, don’t miss the opportunity to taste Bukharan somsa. It is a three-cornered patty made of flaky paste. The filling for somsa varies and can be made of lamb, veal, cheese and herbs, as well as of pumpkin, potato, with some onion and various spices, such as pepper, sesame and caraway seeds. It is tasty and nourishing, a real delicacy. What about dessert? Sure enough you will be offered a wide choice of dessert. It may be khalvetor- Uzbek national dessert made of fried raisin, walnut and honey. Or you may savour chack-chack, a dessert made of small pieces of pastry with raisin, walnut and honey! Bon appetit!
You won’t even notice how the day comes to an end. Isn’t it time for you to relax and give rest to your limbs? Some more interesting experiences await you tomorrow. So back you go, to the comfort of the hotel!

Day 5. Bukhara.
There are so many things to see and to sample in Bukhara. Today after breakfast the guide will introduce you to them.
The architectural ensembles of Bukhara created the city’s shape and continue to form its distinctive image to the present day. Restored and protected by the state, these relics of architecture have been brought back to life and have become the integral part of the modern city.
Sightseeing Bukhara is an interesting pastime, but you should not forget that local cuisine is the highlight of the tour. So it’s high time to satisfy your gourmet passion.
Today you will taste the real home cooking! On an oriental trestle bed, in the shadowy green yard you will be treated to a delicious lunch! The hospitable hostess will cook chuchvara – the most widespread dish sometimes called varak-chuchvara.
Chuchvara is kind of meat dumplings. Its characteristic feature is the flavoursome broth. Dumplings can be served up as main dish as well. In this case you will be offered some seasoning: either tomato sauce with plenty of herbs and garlic, or kind of yogurt with herbs (called “suzma”). A perfect combination! Would you like to sample another exotic dish - mastava with pumpkin? The meat for mastava should be first fried and then boiled. Then rice, one of the basic ingredients, is added to the broth. Sometimes caraway and pumpkin are added, too.
What a variety of delicacies could be cooked from eggplant! Eggplant can be stuffed with juicy lamb, onion and tomatoes. It can also be made into tasty round rissoles. Slices of eggplant are first fried in oil and then used as wrapping for stuffing made of tomatoes, herbs and garlic. You could not ask for a better snack!
For a drink you will be offered good home wine: fortified or dry. To complete it all you will be treated to fragrant tea with quince dessert. Quince is peeled of skin and core, and then filled with fried almonds, raisin and honey.
In the evening, you are invited to an extraordinary restaurant. Why extraordinary? For it is arranged inside of a madrassah courtyard. As a matter of fact, everything in Bukhara is extraordinary. You enter a madrassah and unexpectedly find yourself in an antique shop, or a café, or a handicrafts shop. In short, trading business is a common thing in Asia. There is a show-programme in the evening: instrumental music, girls dancing to the accompaniment of oriental tunes. The menu here offers you a wide choice of dishes: from local Uzbek or Tajik or Kyrgyz cuisine to well-known European one.
What a fascinating day you’ve had! But time flies and it’s time to come back to cozy hotel and have a rest. Tomorrow you will start for magic Khiva.

Day 6. Bukhara - Khiva.
The trip in Bukhara is completed and today you will make your way to Khiva. It’s going to be a very interesting trip, as the road runs along the famous desert of Central Asia – Kyzyl-Kum. You will see endless red hot sands, once trodden by numerous trade caravans. Khiva is an inimitable, real Oriental city, whose air is still pervaded with the spirit of the Middle Ages! There are no high modern buildings or wide busy highways here. It seems that time has come to a standstill just to preserve for you ancient beauty of this amazing land!
After some rest in a hotel we recommend you to view this town by night! Nighttime Khiva is the eighth wonder of the world! Walking along its narrow streets where minarets rise at every step and the sky above is studded with bright stars you may think you are in one of Shaherezada’s tales. And all around you is peace and quiet! It seems the life died down and nobody lives here. There is some alluring mystery in the air, which makes you spellbound.
Everything here is like a fairy-tale, including cooking. Khiva is both architectural and culinary feast. Have you ever sampled naryn? Never heard about one? Well, naryn is usually served as main course and is made of special oiled noodles with pieces of boiled horse meat sausage – kazy and spices. Another widespread dish is onion soup – piyeva. For dinner we recommend to sample roast veal with quince. This dish should contain much caraway and herbs. A good match for this dish is famous Central Asian salad achchik-chuchuk. It consists of ripe fleshy tomatoes cut into pieces and onion sliced in thin rings. These are then dressed with hot pepper. Doesn’t it sound savoury? And then comes tea with halavah (paste of nuts, sugar and oil with sesame seeds) or dry melon – oriental delicacy sweets!
Overnight in hotel.

Day 7. Khiva.
After breakfast our guide will take you to a fantastic outing around ancient Khiva. Oh, Khiva! You are more exotic than a dream!
Our itinerary today includes visits to many magnificent historical monuments and ancient clay houses! The city possesses an amazing feature: all its attractions are located close to each other on a relatively small area enclosed by the outer wall.
The oldest, inner part of the city is called Ichan-kala. Most of Khiva’s main attractions are within this inner area. These are Kunya - Ark fortress (17th century), architectural complex of Pakhlavan Makhmud (14th-19th centuries), Islam Khoja madrassah and minaret (1908), Tash Hauli palace of local khans (18th -19th centuries), Juma mosque (10th-18th centuries) Mukhammad Aminkhan madrassah and minaret (1831-1855).
Now few words about the cuisine. In Uzbekistan eating habits vary from region to region, from city to city. Thus many dishes having same name can taste differently depending on the region they belong to. For instance, stuffed cabbage rolls. There are many ways to cook them! Today we can sample stewed vine leaf rolls stuffed with lamb and rice and various oriental spices. They are no less tasty than traditional cabbage rolls.
Another typical Khorezmian dish is tukhum-barak - a kind of dumpling stuffed with boiled eggs and fried onions.
The main component on each table is bread. Uzbekistan bread is lepyoshka (“obi-non”). Even lepyoshka varies in taste and form in different regions of Uzbekistan. In Tashkent it is puffy and is made from fancy pastry, in Samarkand it is thick and at the same time soft, in Khiva it is thin and milky. It’s difficult to say which one is better or tastier. Samarkanders insist on their lepyoshka to be the tastiest, whereas Khiva residents contend against this statement asserting that their bread is much more delicious. Every man to his own taste. Why not to sample and decide for yourself which one you give the preference to: Samarkand, Tashkent or Khiva lepyoshka?
Tea ceremony is widespread all over Uzbekistan. Uzbek people drink tea whenever an opportunity presents itself: for breakfast, lunch and dinner, at work, at home or while being a guest in somebody’s house. The favourite tea of any Uzbek person is green tea – kok-chai. No party, no celebration or meeting of friends can do without it. Tea is served in piala (a drinking bowl) together with fruits and pastry: so called ‘twiglets’, puff cookie, thick pancakes with butter, kaymak (boiled cream), dry fruits or honey. Tonight you will have an exotic feast.

Day 8. Khiva - Urgench - Tashkent.
The busy days full of new unforgettable experiences have glided away and the tour is nearing its end. Time has come to say goodbye to magic Khiva and to come back to Tashkent.
You will have this day at leisure. We invite you to take a walk along the Japanese garden located in the centre of Tashkent, to watch the ducks peacefully floating in a small pond, or pompous storks pacing in the park, and to recollect the places we have visited and the cities that impressed you so much that will stay in your memory forever.
We also advice you to visit Chor-su bazaar in the old part of Tashkent. Touring of oriental bazaar is an unforgettable experience. Moreover, here you can buy various souvenirs for your family and friends!
Tashkent offers a diverse range of cuisine as its population constitutes a heavy mix of foreigners and diverse ethnic community. In Tashkent you can savour the dishes of Uzbek, European, Chinese, Korean, Kyrgyz, Uigur, Japanese and other cuisines which have become popular among the local people and numerous guests of Uzbek capital.

Day 9. Tashkent. Departure home.
Our gastronomic tour is over. In this tour we tried to give you an opportunity to feel all the diversity and exotic nature of Uzbek rich cuisine which inherited the culinary legacies of many cultures. We tried not to miss anything important! The most notable dishes of indigenous cuisine were included into you menu, as well as the most interesting attractions were included into your itinerary. Unfortunately, the time limits prevent you from sampling and experiencing many more amazing things. Hospitable Uzbekistan is looking forward to your next visit!

© Material is belonged to «Central Asia Travel».
Copying and using all presented information and material is possible ONLY by authority of the originator.

to the top