Uzbek Food
One afternoon, after I drove around the upscale Forest Hills neighborhood looking for SpiderMan's house (that's another story) my curiosity brought me to an Uzbek restaurant on the border of Rego Park and Forest Hills in Queens. Coming in, all I knew was that Uzbekistan was part of the old Silk Road, where there must have been plenty of seasonings and culinary exchange.
So we tried this assortment of grilled meat and vegetables Ansor Uzbek Restaurant NYC | Halal Food that reminded me of similarly grilled dishes in North Indian and Pakistani cuisine. I also remembered what my guide in New Delhi told me then when I was eating my way around India, that prior the Mughal period, much of North Indian cooking was centered around simple grilling, with meat directly exposed to fire. The Mughals, whose empire traced its roots to Central Asia where Uzbekistan is, later introduced and refined many of the rich curries, braised dishes, and kebabs that have since become synonymous with North Indian cuisine. The sauces and curries were further popularized by the British, when they brought these rich curries back to Europe and the world.
There are certainlyy similarities with Indian halal food but one welcome difference is that this restaurant uses heat sparingly. Even the separate home made hot sauce didn't burn. Sans heat I still enjoyed dipping my grilled meats onto the heat-softening magic of sour cream that we had to order separately.
And the tea blend was phenomenal! I don't normally like hot tea with sugar, with this as one of the few exceptions. And my favorite grilled item doesn't even have meat in it, it's the creamy and savory solid squares of lamb fat on skewers. I shall be back just for this fatty lamb goodness! It's perfect for keto eaters.
Thanks to our very kind and helpful waitstaff from Samarkand.
Hope to be able to see and enjoy Uzbek food in Samarkand someday. For an hour or so, I left New York and travelled to Uzbek through this wonderful meal. Katta rahmat!
#curious_eater #uzbek #uzbekistan read more