Tajikistan

A thick sweet Tajik porridge made by toasting flour in fat until fragrant and then stirring in boiling water until it thickens into a smooth paste.

Chakka is a thick, tangy strained yogurt made by draining katyk (fermented whole-milk yogurt) through cloth until most whey is expelled, yielding a dense, spreadable soured dairy product eaten plain or as an accompaniment to bread.

A Tajik lamb broth soup featuring hand‑stretched vermicelli‑thin noodles, traditionally served at feasts.

A slow-cooked, savory porridge of wheat, lentils, and beef or mutton simmered for hours and pounded until the meat and grains merge into a thick, homogeneous paste.

A Central Asian dish of minced or cubed lamb threaded onto flat metal skewers and grilled over live charcoal.

A Tajik (and broader Central Asian) dish of lamb offal and meat fried with onions and vegetables in fat until browned and savory.

A Central Asian dish of hand-pulled wheat noodles served in or tossed with a spiced stew of meat and vegetables built on peppers, tomato and onion.

Steamed thin-dough dumplings filled with heavily onioned spiced minced beef or lamb, plated under a layer of garlic-laced yogurt and a tomato-and-lentil (or split-pea) qorma sauce.

A hearty Central Asian rice-and-lamb soup enriched with tomato, vegetables and sometimes quince, traditionally finished with a spoonful of yogurt (suzma) and fresh herbs.

A round, leavened wheat flatbread stamped at the center with a decorative bread seal (chakkich) and baked directly against the inner wall of a clay tandoor, yielding a thin, crackerlike center surrounded by a thick, soft rim.

A Tajik water-dough flatbread baked on the wall of a clay tandoor, thinner and crisper than standard Central Asian non.

A Central Asian pilaf in which rice is steamed to completion atop a deeply reduced base (zirvak) of lamb, julienned yellow carrots, and onion cooked in rendered lamb fat or cottonseed oil in a heavy kazan, producing grains that are separate, fat-glazed, and infused with the meat's fond.

A Tajik-style plov of rice cooked with lamb, carrots and onions, distinguished by a garnish of whole quail eggs and dried fruit.

A Central Asian dish of lamb (and often offal) and onions pan-fried in their own fat in a cast-iron kazan, sometimes with potatoes.

Hard, intensely sour balls of strained fermented milk dried in the sun, a preserved dairy staple of Central Asia.

Qurutob is a Tajik national dish consisting of torn flatbread soaked in a broth made from qurut (dried yogurt) and water, topped with sautéed onions and fat.

A triangular pastry filled with spiced minced lamb and onion, baked (Central Asian) or fried, eaten as a snack across Central Asia and the Horn of Africa.

Shirchoy is a Central Asian everyday tea made by simmering green tea with milk and salt, drunk warm with bread at nearly every meal.

Shurbo is a Tajik clear lamb bone broth soup containing cubed potatoes, carrots, and chickpeas, seasoned with salt, pepper, and dried herbs, and served hot as a main course.