Lagman and Samsa Crawl

The Lagman and Samsa Crawl is a self-guided, two-hour eating route in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, built around two staples of the city's Uzbek-Uyghur cooking: hand-pulled lagman noodles and tandir-baked samsa. It has no tour operator, and visitors pay each venue directly, typically 60,000 to 110,000 UZS (about $5 to $9) per person for the whole route. The route begins at a lagman restaurant near 10 Farobiy Street in the Olmazor District, in the older part of the city. Lagman is a dish of noodles stretched and pulled by hand, served either as a soup or fried, topped with a stew of beef or lamb, peppers, onions and tomatoes, and it reflects the Uyghur and Central Asian Muslim culinary traditions found across the region. Diners can usually watch noodle makers working at the counter in the more traditional kitchens. After the noodles, the second stop is a nearby bazaar stall or bakery where samsa comes out of a clay tandir oven. These baked pastries are traditionally filled with minced lamb, onion and fat, and are eaten hot with the flaky crust still crisp. Pumpkin and potato versions are also sold in some places. The crawl is therefore two main stops rather than a long list of tastings, with a heavily savoury balance and tea as the only sweet or palate-cleansing element. Included in the budget are lagman, samsa and tea; transport between stops, extra dishes and soft drinks are additional. The distance between venues is short enough to walk, and the whole route, including waiting for noodles to be made fresh, usually fits within two hours. Because it is independent, group size and pace are flexible, with pairs and small groups working best for sharing a bowl of lagman and several samsa. Menus are generally in Uzbek and Russian, but pointing at dishes on neighbouring tables or in photos is a common way to order. Dietary substitutions are limited: lagman is meat-based and samsa are most often lamb, though vegetarian pumpkin samsa and vegetable-heavy fried lagman are sometimes available on request.