The national dishes of Asian cuisine are diverse, but there are details, which make them common. For example, in every country rice and vegetables are widely used. All Asian cuisines are notable for generous use of the aromatic spices and dressings, that make dishes pleasant piquant, in which gourmands see value.

The diversity of assortment of the Uzbek cuisine is obliged to the influence of the Turkic and Persian cultures, it is caused by the favorable location of many ancient cities of Uzbekistan on the crossroads of trade routes. Due to such synthesis the recipes of Uzbek cuisine are various, both by food and by cooking methods. Many dishes have a complicated recipe, they are cooked by hand, that requires many years of experience and culinary art. The special professional skill is required at cooking of large amount of pilav from dozens and hundreds of kilograms of rice.

Cuisine of Kazakhstan from the very beginning was traditionally the nomadic cuisine with generous use of meat and products from mare’s milk. But as time went on the Russian immigrants had great influence on the region, therefore the dishes traditional for Russia are very popular in the north of Kazakhstan.

Basic meat for the Kazakh cuisine is: lamb and horse meat. The traditional drinks are tea, kumis and shubat. The bread in its traditional meaning they eat very little here. Instead of it – baursaki and  flatbreads.

A distinctive feature of dishes the Kyrgyz cuisine is the fact that almost all of them are cooked exclusively from the fresh products and rare are hoarded.

Among famous dishes of the Kyrgyz cuisine are: mastava – a rice soup with vegetables, which is served with ayran and pilav with queen-apple pepperidge. In the south of the republic the Uzbek cuisine have an effect on the majority of dishes.

The national cuisine of Tajik people, just like the cookery of each people of Central Asian countries, has its characteristics. It is based on recipes of meat dishes, but unlike with the Kazakh and Kyrgyz cuisines, the vegetables and spices are used here much more.

One of the famous Tajik meals is moshkichiri - the porrige cooked from mixed moong dal and rice. Fatirmasks meal is also popular, it is served hot for guests. It presents the fine crumbled on a large wooden bowl flatbread, pieces of which are mixed with the melted dairy butter, making dimples using wooden spoon. To make pleasant to eat such fatty food, the skinless pieces of melon and grape are added on top.

The Turkmen national cuisine according to its technology and product range is close to the cuisines of other Central Asian countries, however, Turkmen have own cooking methods of all meal. All diversity of recipes of the national culinary art was described in the book of the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov “Turkmen dastarkhan”. As the leader of the state noted in his work, the culinary art of Turkmen people was formed for many ages.

The national cuisine is one of the important elements of the culture of Turkmen people, it reflects the unique people’s customs and rites.

Among the most popular dishes are ishlekli – pie with meat, gutabs with various stuffing and main food of every holiday is the aromatic Turkmen pilav. Besides, there is one more famous soup with bean and pulled noodle– unash. It is the dense, tasty hot meal, where the leading part plays the hot red pepper.

The best dishes of the culinary art of the Central Asian countries were demonstrated on 6 August, 2021 in the International Exhibition of National Dishes of the Peoples of the Central Asian Region held within the framework of the Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia in Avaza National Tourist Zone of Turkmenistan.

Roman Teplyakov