pulling noodles

Day two of the time in Tashkent brought us a couple of new experiences including a ride on the subway system of Tashkent (the Metro) and a visit to a handicrafts museum in an historic house and a fabulous lunch at one of the restaurants of "the Gordon Ramsey of Uzbekistan" a guy named Bahriddin Chustiy. He taught a masterclass in hand pulled noodles... for Lagman (a noodle soup/stew)

we started with another lecture - and then were off to lunch (with some drive by sightseeing along the way) The restaurant is new and lovely- I took this photo off their FB page but the rest will be mine- 

I will do the lunch first and then the noodle lesson although we did them in the opposite order-

we started with spring rolls and then went on to three salads - tomato - eggplant - fried chicken all yummy!

then soup and then samsas (samosa like pastry stuffed with meats and things)

our main dish of handpulled noodles with a meat and veggie stew- very tasty! It is called Lagmon or Lagman depending upon your source of information LOL

Caroline tries her hand at the dough kneading-

Lesa rolls noodles -

This might be a good time to give you a list of dishes that we will be seeing over the next ten days- I found this in wikipedia and it covers pretty much what we had with only a few things missing which I will try to note along the way-

• Çäkçäk – unleavened dough fried in oil
• Chuchvara – a very small dumpling typical of Uzbek cuisine that is made of unleavened dough squares filled with meat.
• Chorba – one of various kinds of soup or stew found in national cuisines across the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East.
• Dimlama – An Uzbek stew prepared with various combinations of meat, potatoes, onions, vegetables, and sometimes fruits. Meat (mutton or beef) and vegetables are cut into large pieces and placed in layers in a tightly sealed pot to simmer slowly in their own juices.
• Katyk – sour-milk yogurt 
• Lagman – lamb and noodle soup
• Manti – also referred to as kaskoni, dumplings filled with ground meat and onion that are steamed. Typical meats used include mutton and beef Manti are sometimes prepared in a specialized steamer designed to cook them, called a mantyshnitsa.
• Meats include mutton, beef, poultry, goat meat, camel meat and horse meat (such as horse meat sausage)
• Melons (qovun), such as watermelon, are a prominent part of Uzbek cuisine. Qovun means "melon", and may refer to a melon that has an elongated shape, which has been described as "exceptionally sweet and succulent." Melons are often served as a dessert.
• Naryn – a pasta dish made with fresh hand-rolled noodles and horse meat.
• Noodle-based dishes
• Fried nuts and almonds
• Obi Non – also called patyr and nan, is a bread that is a staple food in Uzbek cuisine. It is formed into large discs and cooked. Tradition holds that the bread is always placed flat side up (rather than upside-down), and never cut with a knife. Non is a significant part of Uzbek cuisine, and is influenced by pre-Islamic traditions. It is typically prepared in tandir ovens. Styles of non can vary by region.
• Oshi toki – stuffed grape leaves
• Plov – a pilaf dish, it is a national dish of Uzbekistan. In Uzbek culture, it is customary for men to prepare the dish when it is served at feasts or celebrations. Per tradition, plov is typically eaten without the use of utensils, with the right hand, although sometimes a spoon is used.
• Rice dishes 
• Samsa – pastries filled with various meats and onion and cooked in a tandoor or standard oven.
• Shakarap – a salad prepared with tomato, onion, salt and pepper[5] Some versions use a pumpkin filling during autumn.
• Kabob – meats (typically mutton or beef) grilled on a skewer or with a spit. Kabob are often sold at food stands and roadway stalls. Traditional kabob are prepared with meat only, omitting vegetables.
• Shurpa – a popular soup prepared with potatoes, vegetables and meat (typically mutton)
• Sumalak – sweet paste made entirely from germinated wheat (young wheatgrass)
• Suzma – clotted milk that is strained, forming curds
• Tirit – prepared to avoid wasting dry bread, it is prepared with the broth of offals and cutting dry bread and adding ground pepper and onion.
• Yogurt soup – yogurt soup cooked with a variety of herbs, rice and sometimes chickpeas.

Beverages

• Fresh ayran with a head of froth
• Ayran – a cold yogurt beverage mixed with salt.
• Green tea (kok choy) is typically served without sugar or milk, and is often consumed in teahouses, known as choyhonas.
• Beer
• Vodka – is the most popular alcoholic beverage, and is typically drunk straight (sans dilution or mixer).
• Wine 

Desserts

• Candies 
• Fresh or dried fruit 
• Melons 
• Halvah (lavz) – in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, soft sesame halva is made from sugar syrup, egg whites, and sesame seeds. Solid sesame halva is made from pulled sugar, repeatedly stretched to give a white color, and prepared sesame is added to the warm sugar and formed on trays.

so-back to our day- the next stop is an historic house that also serves as a handicraft museum (museum of applied arts LOL)- where they have some fabulous old handwork and the house itself is a work of art as well-

then some of the handicrafts - I made the suzanni into a collage because I had so many photos-

here are some close up so you can see the wonderful needle work-

They also had a smattering of jewelry and boxes and musical instruments - etc....

Then it was on to the Metro for a tour of some subway stops- which I have no photos of - photos forbidden- but which the internet can help us with LOL - we got on at cosmonaut (kosmonavtlar) and rode two stops to Alisher Navoiy then we walked through another stop with chandliers but I am not sure whether it was Maydoni or Bunyadkor (either way very few of the photos I found were actually labeled) but you get the idea each one individual and beautifully decorated-

from there we headed to the airport for our early evening flight to Urgench - on a 787 Dreamliner of Uzbekistan Airlines-

after we arrived we took a bus to the hotel and had a late dinner (about 10PM) and then crashed-

salads, soup and kebabs and a nice nut-flan-like dessert-

The hotel is lavishly decorated in a kitschy kind of way- the lobby shown below...

tomorrow is another day and we will be spending it in Khiva - an ancient town that has been both preserved and, in some places, restored - it is essentially an open air museum that folks live in and do business in and we all loved it! So come on back for some eye popping photos of minarets and mosques and a harem building as well as fun with families! It's about to be Navruz (and more on that too!) Stay tuned!