Tashkent’s Plov King

AFP has a wonderful story on Nurshod Asymov, who is rumored to make the best plov in Tashkent.

“You won’t eat plov like this anywhere else in the city,” he says authoritatively, an opinion backed up not only by his customers but by the city’s chief opinion formers — taxi drivers.

“Best plov in town,” at least a half a dozen cabbies separately confided to AFP recently.

And it certainly does look excellent.

In a country where the ability to make a tasty plov is a matter of male honor (women are not considered able to mix the concoction properly), being branded the best is quite an accomplishment. At Asymov’s cafe, the accolades are backed up by some 1,000 mouths which each day savor his creations.

At noon every day, Asymov’s eight sous-chefs lift the tops of three huge iron cauldrons, the largest a meter in diameter, in which lamb, beef, carrots, raisins and rice have fried, simmered, boiled and steamed since 7 a.m.

They stir their concoctions like witches mixing a brew and begin to dole out aromatic heaps into bowls, plates and pots. Two hours later, the cauldrons are empty and hundreds of stomachs full.

“If you eat a portion of my plov for lunch, you won’t feel hungry until the next day,” Asymov says. “I guarantee it.”

Asymov says he knows how to make 80 kinds of plov and that the key to good plov is to not skimp on ingredients. He personally selects the cows and sheep for his plov.

If you want to try your hand at making plov, there are a few different recipes here. I’m partial to the first one because of its explicit mention of the importance of cumin. A note though… People tell me the plov I make is good. But, like with wok cooking, a well-seasoned kozon (the iron cauldrons mentioned above, which are pretty much really big, heavy woks) makes much better plov than does a plain old pot. Also, there’s no way to make healthy plov. Don’t use olive or any other healthy oil. It’s just not right! If you can find cottonseed oil, use it. If not, go with sunflower.

More recipes can be found here, here, and loads of discussion here when Laurence posted a recipe.

And finally, to my Tashkent readers, have you had Asymov’s plov? Is he really the best?

This post was written by...

Nathan Hamm – author of 2040 posts on Registan.net.

Nathan founded Registan.net in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural factors shape risks and opportunities. Follow him on Twitter or drop him a line.