A trip to San Francisco International to pick up Kristen became an adventure as I dropped off Kaitlin and Andrea at a craft fair at Fort Mason, stopped by Halal Dastarkhan restaurant to order Uzbek food (they told me to call when I left the airport), waited for Kristen (her flight landed on time, but took 45 minutes to get to the gate and get luggage), called for the food, then met Kaitlin and Andrea and ate at a picnic table at the Presidio overlooking the water. It was a beautiful clear December day with the Golden Gate Bridge to our left, the bay dotted with sailboats between us and Sausalito, and the city’s wharves and financial district to our right. Kristen had the Lula, a grilled beef and lamb mixture served with onion, rice, and grilled tomato. Andrea and I both had pumpkin manti, in which the bright orange pumpkin in the dumplings were cut into a tiny dice. We all had the chicken samsa. We thought it would be like a samosa, but it was different enough to be a brand new experience. Kaitlin also had the bread sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds with sections that could be pulled apart and the other bread – Tashkent Non. What a fun and delicious Central Asian blend of what we might consider Chinese (dumplings), middle eastern (bread with sesame seeds), and Indian (mildly spiced with cumin).
Watching sailboats by the bay was quite a contrast to my next Uzbek food adventure, which was eating behind a grocery store in Valley Village near Los Angeles. If I lived closer, I would always go to Tashkent Produce for my fruit. It was so beautiful and there was a lot of variety. But Gladys, Elaine, Joanie, Cathy, and I were there for their counter with prepared foods and racks with baked goods. We started with the delicious salads, 1) shredded beets, 2) beet and potato, 3) carrot, 4) cabbage, 5) carrot and cucumber, and 6) potato salad with chicken. We also had savory hand pies with beef and onions and a vegetarian option with spinach and feta. Then we had chicken stuffed with spinach and a light rye bread before turning to the desserts, each of them bready and filled with farmers cheese and raisins. There wasn’t any place to sit and eat. We were checking our phones for a nearby park when the super helpful workers assembled crates and boxes to set up an eating space in the loading area behind the store. My friends are all adventurous enough to appreciate the thoughtful gesture and picnic in an alley. Here’s what the food looks like when you’re in Uzbekistan as shown by the enthusiastic eater Mark Wiems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3xHJzNNM2A
A third place to experience Uzbek food here in California is in the combined Uzbek, Russian, and Ukrainian restaurant EuroAsia in Encino. I had the Uzbek soup, and they have plov, non, manti, and many other things to keep the meal completely Uzbek or combine it with the cuisines of other nearby countries. Here are some recipes for an even wider experience of Uzbek food: http://www.uzbekcuisine.com/index.html
I found Uzbek authors at the Los Angeles County Library including Bibish who wrote The Dancer from Khiva: One Muslim Woman’s Quest for Freedom and four different books by Hamid Ismailov. There are several more Uzbek authors represented here: https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/country/uzbekistan/
Current Uzbek music can be found starting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIR4YF0_B6M&list=PLwXm-6rb9eQayUOP19sy_hGJuOvaD3Gi7
My favorite thing that I did in Uzbekistan while staying at home was watch The Great Courses series on “The Mongol Empire” on Kanopy. Episodes 20-22 are on Tamerlane and Samarkand. Resources on the Silk Road are also a great way to experience Uzbekistan. You may have some vague memory from high school that algebra was invented by the Arab mathematician Muhammad al-Khwarismi, but I don’t remember that anyone pointed out that he was from the area that is now Uzbekistan.
Getting to Uzbekistan may take some effort, but being there wouldn’t cost much according to Drew Binsky in his video on what $10 will buy in Uzbekistan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llChJDKEd_4
There are great places to visit in Uzbekistan: https://www.wildfrontierstravel.com/en_US/blog/things-to-do-in-uzbekistan. I would love to go! I hope for a time when broad travel gives us new perspectives. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Uzbekistan and throughout the world.
Photo Credit: Ozodbek Erkinov https://unsplash.com/photos/hvLu3ABC1n0
Comments