Bread is sacred in Uzbekistan. The country has an attitude towards bread that in entirety is reverential. It’s like this bread has sacred features.
And it’s not like bread you’ve tasted anywhere else. Uzbekistan bread is unique…
It’s the kind of bread that sparks a deep eye-closing breath of nostalgia for hearty dreams of travel that can only be found in Central Asia.
With knowledge of that and the now precedent taste of Uzbek’s sacred gift forever tinged on our tastebuds, we still pinch ourselves that we got to spend the day with a family of fourth generation Uzbek bakers – and see how magic is made.
So now to pay it forward; here is everything you need to know about the most famous Uzbekistan bread.
Uzbek Bread from Samarkand
There is bread from Tashkent, and bread from Bukhara and Khiva.
But of all Uzbekistan bread, Samarkand bread is regarded with the utmost prestige as the golden child of Uzbekistan non.
This bread is fabled in Uzbekistan to last for up to three years.
Stories suggest that when a man was leaving his village for a journey he would take a bite of Uzbek non, and the loaf would be hung on the wall until his return.
The legend of Uzbek bread
It was known that the Khan from Bukhara liked Samarkand bread a lot. The Khan asked his advisers why the bread is brought to Bukhara from Samarkand and if they could also bake it in Bukhara.
The advisers told him it wasn’t possible, and that it is only tasty when made in Samarkand.
The Khan didn’t believe it and ordered that they bring the best bakers from Samarkand to Bukhara and bake the bread there.
The bakers came and made the bread in Bukhara, but it had a different taste. The advisers decided it must be that they also need to bring the ingredients and equipment from Samarkand.
So the tandyr oven, flour and water were brought from Samarkand.
The bakers tried again, but the result was still not satisfying. The bread did not taste as the one made in Samarkand.
The Khan was puzzled. What was the matter? But the baker had the answer. ”Whatever we bring, we cannot bring the Samarkand air”.
And so he left and people continued to bring bread from Samarkand as they had done before.
Finding ourselves at an Uzbek bakery
You will need to read my story of The Greatest Gift of Travel to fully understand how it came to be that we had ended up in the home of a bakers family in the middle of Central Asia.
But here we were; fumbling our way through the darkened basement bakery at the home of Aslbek’s friends…
The back room is set aside for mixing the dough and laying the prepared bread out to rise. The two brothers start at 4:00am to prepare the dough.
This legendary Uzbekistan bread comes in just one shape – round.
Although walking through the bakery section of any bazaar in Uzbekistan makes it’s clear there are as many decorative patterns as there are bakers.
The bread is stunning to look at; glazed to perfection with just enough shine and sprinkled with black or white (or both) sesame seeds.
Right now the loaves of uncooked bread are lined up on a mat, having risen and retained the iconic circular shape.
Feeling the heat
It is cooked in the same way throughout Central Asia, on the hot clay walls of tanyrs – wood-fired ovens similar to the Indian shaped tandoori oven.
The main difference being size. In that these ovens are tall enough and wide enough to walk right into.
The ceiling is arched to generate the best use of heat, and is just at the right height that it can be reached into from the side.
The catch though? The baker needs to actually reach right inside the oven when it is on. (Remembering that this is catering size and fully heated tandoor oven).
It’s summer in Uzbekistan. Right now it’s early morning but the temperature is already into the thirties.
He covers himself with another layer of long sleeves, gloves, a balaclava and a hat. (No hairs are left exposed to the extreme heat!)
Each loaf of prepared bread is brushed individually with water before he reaches into the oven and sticks the loaf carefully to the sides and ceiling.
Thirty minutes later he uses a long pole and wooden basket to peel 40 golden loaves off the walls.
Absolute perfection.
The smell is universal. The scent of freshly baked bread wafting in the air still warm from the tandoor oven.
The taste test (with a twist)
The loaves are lined up to check over and wrapped in a baby-sized bundle ready for market.
But first, the much awaited taste test…
It’s not what you think. Because Uzbekistan bread is so beautifully dense and the crust so thick, Aslbek explains that it’s tradition to eat the first warm loaf after dunking it in a bowl of water. (Don’t turn away just yet!).
Trust me, it’s contradictory but surprisingly(!) delicious.
Because the bread is so dense it doesn’t go soggy (as we immediately imagined, shooting matching looks of horror at exactly the same moment).
It seems nothing can be done to hinder the taste of this incredible golden loaf.
The rest of the loaf is broken and shared between all of us.
The two bakers and their daughters, Aslbek and our family all simultaneously munching in deserved silence and appreciation for what can only be described as a taste delight.
Uzbek bread is as legendary to taste as all of the stories conjure.
Useful links for your travels in Uzbekistan and beyond…
These are the companies we use while traveling fulltime as a family and that we would recommend to anyone planning and booking travel.
- Booking.com – The best all-around accommodation booking site that constantly provides the cheapest and lowest rates. They have the widest selection of budget accommodation and it’s easy to filter and sort into price and availability with all the extras you are looking for personally.
- Hostelworld– The largest inventory of hostel accommodation in the world.
- Skyscanner – This is by far our favourite flight search engine. They are able to search small websites and budget airlines that larger search sites often miss. We book all our flights through Skyscanner.
- GetYourGuide– Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace for tours and excursions offered all around the world including everything from walking tours, to street-food tours, cooking classes, desert safari’s and more!
- SafetyWing – A global travel insurance that covers people from all over the world while outside their home country. You can buy it short or longterm; and even if you are out of the country.
- World Nomads – Travel insurance tailored for longterm travel and nomads (including those who have already left home).
Read more about traveling in Central Asia
- Uzbekistan: A complete travel guide to Uzbekistan.
- The greatest gift of travel: We found it in Uzbekistan.
- 5 Awesome things to do on your first time in Tashkent.
- Taking an overnight train to Nukus, Karakalpakstan.
- Border crossing: Karkara, Kyrgyzstan to Keten, Kazakhstan.
- Kazakhstan: Completing a dream circuit of ‘Stans.
- Kyrgyz’ what? A complete travel guide to Kyrgyzstan.
- Visiting human disaster at the disappearing Aral Sea in Muynak.
Have you tried Central Asian bread? Or more importantly, have you now added Uzbekistan bread to your bucketlist??