Over hundreds of years, various ethnic groups have passed through Samarkand, sharing and influencing each other's cuisine and leaving their culinary stamp. This book is a love letter to Central Asia and the Caucasus, containing personal travel essays and recipes little known in the West that have been expertly adapted for the home cook.

An array of delicious dishes introduce the region and its different ethnic groups-Uzbek, Tajik, Russian, Turkish, Korean, Caucasian, and Jewish-along with a detailed introduction to the Silk Road and a useful store cupboard of essential ingredients.
Chapters are divided into A Shared Table, Soups, Roast Meats & Kebabs, Warming Food for Long Winters, Plovs & Pilafs, Accompaniments, Breads & Doughs, Drinks, and Desserts & Sweetmeats. One hundred recipes are showcased, including Apricot & Red Lentil Soup, Chapli Kebabs, Rosh Hashanah Plov with Barberries, Pomegranate, & Quince, Kefir Pancakes with Blackberry Syrup, and the all-important regional breads. And with evocative travel features such as Lunch on the Road to Samarkand, A Banquet on the Caspian Sea, and Shopping under Kyrgyzstan's Sacred Mountain, you will be charmed and enticed by this relatively untouched region and its cuisine.