I hope the Uzbeks love their samsas too

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Bukhara is a tandoori place in New York popular with many, including Bill Clinton. I’ve had one amazing meal there and one passable.

Samsas stuck to the sides of a tandoor

A NYT story on Central Asian restaurants in Queens decodes the origin of the name, the city of Bukhara in Uzbekistan. As a border culture, its food is an interesting mix of Indian, Persian and Chinese. Its samosa equivalent is stuck to the side of a tandoori oven like how roadside dhabas make chapatis.

Reflecting the influence of silk and spice trades, there are tastes of China and India everywhere. Every Bukharian menu offers a garlicky, chili-spiked Korean carrot salad, morkovcha koreyska, that is a legacy of Stalin’s mass deportations of ethnic Koreans from the far eastern Soviet Union to its western frontiers. At Tandoori Bukharian Bakery in Rego Park, a samsa – one of Asia’s many cousins of the Indian samosa – is deliciously spiked with cumin and baked against the walls of a clay-lined oven that Bukharians, like Indians, call a tandoor. [Link]

It probably got the samosa directly from Iran when the Persian empire absorbed the city. The restaurants sound a whole lot like hill stations in India:

A traditional Central Asian restaurant is little more than a stop for merchants and shepherds traveling the difficult road over the Pamir peaks; the ancient Persians called the region the roof of the world. These restaurants, called chai khanas, or tea houses, provided travelers in the most remote settlements with a place to warm themselves with pots of green tea… [Link]

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p>There are Chinese influences on Bukharian food as well:

Farther north, bread and flour take over – especially lagman, hand-pulled noodles whose name evolved from the Chinese lo mein. Very popular among the Bukharians, lagman have been mastered by another Central Asian group, the Uighurs, who have a small community in New York… Uighurs are Muslim, and speak a language derived from Turkish… [Link]

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p>The Bukharians are Russian-speaking Jews who trace their descent to Babylon:

The finished product

Neither Ashkenazi nor Sephardi (the two major groups of Diaspora Jews), the Bukharians say that their lineage goes directly back to the Babylonian captivity, before 500 B.C. “Our people are the ones who did not return to Jerusalem afterward, but remained in Asia…” In two decades, more than 90 percent of the 120,000 Bukharians have left Central Asia for Israel or the United States… about 40,000 Bukharian Jews have settled in New York since the collapse of the Soviet Union… [Link]

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p>A little to the west, restaurants in Afghanistan also use a word equivalent to tadka, the spices heated and popped in the beginning which winds up the good stuff at the bottom. The restaurant below is named Bahar, spring:

At Bahar in Elmhurst, the best Afghan restaurant I have found in New York, the naranj pilaf is a rich, glowing orange color, thickly larded with shreds of orange peel, soft almonds and pistachios… “Rice is the first thing we eat, and the most important,” said an owner, Huma Lewal, who came to New York from Kabul in 1992. “And the crust on the bottom of the rice pot, the ta-di-qi, is always given to the oldest and most respected person in the room.” [Link]

Let’s not forget that at least one prominent Mughal came from Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan.

Related post: A Mumbaikar on Delhi

18 thoughts on “I hope the Uzbeks love their samsas too”

  1. And the crust on the bottom of the rice pot, the ta-di-qi, is always given to the oldest and most respected person in the room.”

    We call the crust khur-chan and it’s given to the youngest person in the room or generally shared among the kids.

    The room-heating wood and coal ovens we used in Simla was called a Bukhari.

  2. Great post, Manishl…amazing threads of history coming together. The Uighers are very different from Han Chinese. Some more on their food here.

  3. I remember having dinner at a restaurant in Delhi called Bukhara. I think it was in the Sheraton Hotel. The food was awesome. Supposedly, there was some migration of Uzbeks to Delhi and hence the popularity of their cuisine in Delhi.

  4. ummm…mouth-watering and educational post, Manish. Who knew there was a tandoori samosa too. Thx for writing this down.

    The finished product looks much like the innumberable egg-puffs (with tea) consumed while in Bangalore.

  5. Yes, nice post Manish. I’m also impressed how none of your excerpts had a mention of meat, unlike the pictures on the NYT page. Can you be vegetarian and really appreciate food from that part of the world ? 🙂

    Also:

    a legacy of StalinÂ’s mass deportations of ethnic Koreans from the far eastern Soviet Union to its western frontiers.

    What a terrible but interesting detail. (inspiration for title ?)

  6. ..oh and forgot to add. There is this famous Samarkand restaurant in Bangalore. Afghan style food. Their menu is designed like like some vintage Afghani newsletter reporting the journeys and conquests of Nadir Shah and suchlike. Their chicken shorba(soup) served with long flavored bread sticks is one of the best I’ve had. I must run now before it gets any more mouthwaterrry..

  7. This is the SECOND article I’ve read this WEEK mentioning the crust at the bottom when making rice. I’d never even thought twice about it before, except to assume that I cooked the rice too long. But it’s a delicacy? Cool. I should make some rice.

  8. and their name translates into ‘tea and food’ in Hindi:

    In Hindi, khana also means house (e.g. daak-khana => post office, dawa-khana => chemist). So Chai-khana literally means Chai-House, a place where tea is served, not Chai and Food.

  10. The ethiopian restaurant meskerem in midtown and downtown manhattan has sambosa too! slihtly flaky fried triangular pastry, but stuffed with spring onions (i think) and pulses. different and delicious.

  11. Great topic and post, Manish! That is the one part of the world I am so crazy about: Central Asia. Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva; such amazing history. Someday I’ll get to go there myself, Inshallah.

  12. LetÂ’s not forget that at least one prominent Mughal came from Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan.

    Would Timur count as a Mughal? I seriously doubt it. He was a Chagatay Mongol (a Turkicised Mongol of the tribe or ulu founded by Chagatay, one of the sons of Chengiz Khan)

    Babar and his son Humayun, descendents of Timur, never lived in Samarkand, but spent their lives dreaming of conquering it. They considered it their home. India was just a side detour for them while waiting for the chance to grab the real deal, Samarkand. Akbar was the first Mughal emperor who was born in India and considered it his homeland. He gave up on the Samarkand dream and got assimilated into India.

  13. At first look I thought that second photo was of cornish hens. The samsas’ skin kinda look papery and translucent like their made from some phyllo dough. Wonder if they eat them plain or with some kinda chutney. I’m so jealous of people who live near good ethnic restaurants.

    btw, is “tadka” bengali for tarkha?

  14. This is the SECOND article I’ve read this WEEK mentioning the crust at the bottom when making rice. I’d never even thought twice about it before, except to assume that I cooked the rice too long. But it’s a delicacy? Cool. I should make some rice.

    i encountered the same thing at dinner at the home of some iranian friends. they too call it the “tadiq,” and it was served in its own dish, separate from the non-crusty rice. folks were taking a helping of each. and as guests we were enjoined to eat as much of it as possible.

    fwiw, when living in west africa i found a similar value placed on the crusty stuff, though without the ritual described in this article.

    get crusty y’all!

    peace

  18. And the crust on the bottom of the rice pot, the ta-di-qi, is always given to the oldest and most respected person in the room.”

    … we Persians generally use the term “Tadeek”… and I’ve never heard of any order of who gets to eat it, it’s just there for everyone to enjoy; of course, younger people would probably let their elders serve themselves first…