Plov — Плов

An excellent plov from restaurant
 Bukhara on Gorkii Street in Bishkek.
Photo: Savanna Willerton

Plov, also known as pilaw and pilaf, is ubiquitous throughout Central Asia, Russia, across the Middle East and in South Asia. While ingredients vary from place to place, plov is always rice-based, usually contains meat, some sort of vegetable and animal fat. Uzbek-style plov, also prominent in Kyrgyzstan, can be made by simmering rice in lamb fat and spices and then adding shredded carrots, raisins or pine nuts, and sometimes sautéed onions. Half of the lamb meat is then cut into cubes and mixed in, and the other half is served in strips on top of the rice; the plov depicted to the right also included a boiled egg. It is worth noting that there are dozens upon dozens of distinct types of plov. I recently came across a recipe book dedicated exclusively to plov of all sorts: it listed over 150 distinct recipes, as well as detailed instructions on what sort of rice to choose for which sorts of spices, which tea to serve, etc.

Plov is fervently claimed by many of the cultures in which it is represented, and with right, since each has a legitimate claim to their own version. In Kyrgyzstan, it is generally acknowledged to be an Uzbek dish, but it is often said that best plov comes from Osh, a Kyrgyz city, approximately half of whose population is ethnically Uzbek. While Kyrgyz and Uzbek people have long co-existed in places like Osh, there is tension simmering below the surface that occasionally erupts, as it did in 2010, when between 400 and 500 people were killed and between 70,000 and 90,000 were displaced, many permanently, almost all ethnically Uzbek.

Osh's bustling central market. Business is conducted
primarily in Kyrgyz and Uzbek. While still considered
Central Asia's largest market, it has never quite
recovered from the violence of 2010.
Photo: Robert Henschel 2013

Plov most likely came to Central Asia via the Persians, who passed on aspects of their culinary tradition to the sedentary Turkic peoples, like the Uzbek. It then spread north, east and west, initially to agricultural cultures which had the opportunity to cultivate rice. In the era of urbanization and international commerce, plov went on to become an important dish even in the formerly nomadic cultures, such as the Kyrgyz one. In this way, Kyrgyz plov is representative both of the cultural interaction with the Uzbek and the relatively recent urbanization and shift away from a nomadic economy and lifestyle.

You can buy plov at any restaurant or stolovaia (basically a cafeteria for everyone, i.e. a cheap restaurant with no waiters). It is one of the cheapest meal options on the menu, and while an excellent plov in Bishkek can be hard to find, it is difficult to go very wrong with plov.