Central Asian Cuisine

Central Asian Cuisine is the food of the steppe, desert and oasis lands of Central Asia, shaped by Persian, Indian, Arab, Turkish, Chinese, Mongol and Russian cultures and by migrations of Uyghur, Slavic, Korean, Tatar, Dungan and German peoples. Nomadic herders lived on dairy products with some game and plant foods, and scarce water and fuel favoured tandyr ovens and single-cauldron cooking for flatbread, samsa, meats, soups and dumplings. The region splits into nomadic or urban, highland or lowland, and Mongol, Turkic or Iranian traditions. Common flavours include sheep tail fat, onion, hot peppers, black pepper, cumin and sesame. A meal often runs from tea and tandyr bread through soup or noodles to a pilov of meat, rice and carrots, served on a dastarkhan cloth.