My wife and I own a restaurant. It's a tough business.
I feel like there must be more interest among native-born Americans in foreign food these days, based on the fact there's 3 Uzbek restaurants within a couple of neighboring cities (which are maybe 200k people total). There's apparently only ~2000 Uzbek-Americans in all of northern IL! And mostly concentrated over an hour's drive away from where these restaurants are.
That said, my wife and I were very interested to try the Tashkent bread. I think this article calls it out - it's better very fresh. It was really good, but not as amazing as we expected (maybe lunch is the time to dine at the Uzbek place closest to us).
I still find it amazing that even (probably) family-run restaurants for such a niche cuisine can make a go of it. I take it as a good sign about American dining preferences.
I guess if you're a migrant, an ethnic restaurant (is that term politically correct?) is one of the most obvious businesses you can start.
The Thai government used to sponsor (not sure if they still do) Thai diaspora who want to open a restaurant in a foreign country, it was their way to market the country and attract tourists.
Thai cuisine is remarkably interesting due to Global Thai and both the funding for restaurants as well as the standardization of curry recipes that was led by the government to help spread cultural awareness of the cuisine.
OK, I'll bite. In this particular case I personally would have said "a restaurant of your national cuisine" or even omit the adjective altogether since it's somewhat obvious from the preceding conversation what you mean.
My main qualm with this usage -- aside from being dated -- is that all cuisines are ethnic, but singling out the hypothetical migrant's as such implies that it is particularly ethnic. So in this sense it is a bit othering.
To be clear, I don't write this to call you out for your usage or accuse you -- I'm just answering your good-faith question.
RE your point, I don't agree that it's so obvious -- cooking and running a restaurant are pretty hard regardless of where you are from!
that websites estimates are definitely too low - e.g. there are definitely more than 40 Uzbek people in Chicago... I've been to 3 uzbek restaurants in Chicago proper myself.
It’s wild how NYC trumps every other city for ethnic food by miles. The number of central Asian places (mostly Uzbek and Georgian) is probably closer to 100.
NYC is just a wonderful place. I lived there for a decade and loved every minute of it. I don’t want to live there anymore because now I have a family and I like having a huge amount of land and living in nature and serenity and all of that but New York City is one of the best places on the planet.
My wife and I started something during Covid where we'd pick a random city in the world (there are websites that do this for you), look at the region's popular/common dishes and pick one to cook for the weekend. Most recent was Mirza Ghasemi: A smoked eggplant dish cooked with garlic, tomatoes, and eggs, from the Caspian Sea area.
We would also sometimes make flatbreads from the area but man is it messy to do in your own place with flour flying around everywhere. We do make the flatbreads sometimes but it's usually easier to just buy frozen paratha from the Indian store.
> Mirza Ghasemi: A smoked eggplant dish cooked with garlic, tomatoes, and eggs, from the Caspian Sea area.
Eggplant is one of those incredible veggies that seemingly not a lot of people know what to do with. You can bake it on a grill or your cooktop stove to give it that amazing smokey taste. I often eat it as-is without adding anything else but pairing with eggs takes it to the next level. There is another dish from that same general region called Ajapsandali which is probably one of the tastiest breakfast meals you'll ever eat if you like eggplant.
Eggplant, after being charred on an open flame, is an incredibly versatile and flavorful ingredient to put into other vegetable dishes. Shout out to the Indian baingan bharta of course. Ratatouille made with charred eggplant is simply amazing.
The word "non" used throughout the article is the origin of the term "naan bread" from Indian culture (the Central Asian Turks/Mughals who ruled most of India for centuries developed "naan bread").
I generally like lots of vegetables, and while I can certainly enjoy a good eggplant parmesan (anything breaded and fried with cheese and marinara sauce is usually pretty easy to like), eggplant has got to be my least favorite vegetable, and I've tried it lots of different ways.
It just has the consistency of some kind of styrofoam to me (or else just turns to mush if it's overcooked) with a bitter-ish taste I don't like. While it can serve the purpose of "it just soaks up the flavor/sauce of whatever it's cooked in", there are lots of other vegetables/beans/tofu I'd much rather use for that purpose than eggplant.
Worth bathing the decently sliced eggplant in whipped egg and then in flour, and frying in a decent amount of oil. Add herbs. Simple. This is common in the Mediterranean.
When cooking over gas, it is nice to remove the skin in cold water, chop up coarsely, and add yoghurt, garlic, olive oil, salt and herbs, with a good whizzing up following, to make a decent dip for flatbread or anything else.
I never liked eggplant as a kid, but my Chinese in-laws make some amazing eggplant dishes. My favourite is one where they cut it into inch thick slices, then slice the slice about 3/4 of the way through and stuff it with a seasoned pork mince, dust it with flour and deep fry until golden.
Unagi Don using Aubergine is one of the few vegan cheats that is arguably better than the original. Rukmini Iyer does a nice riff with a vegan traybake on a similar theme that's very easy to throw together
Is “aubergine” a true synonym of “eggplant” or are you referring to a regional variety of some kind, different from the “eggplant” in other comments here?
While I don't care for eggplant, I used to make an exception for Moussaka Pizza (eggplant and meatballs) from Waterford Pizza in Waterford, CT. (I believe they're still there; but, it's been 40+ years.)
It makes sense and is also a surprise to see that Aramco has a lifestyle publishing arm.
That aside, this was a great article. There are some great videos on yt as well showing the baking process. But what those videos don’t show that this article points to is the these Uzbek bakers use natural sour dough leavening. I wish this article also included a recipe for the dough.
Another thing this article does that I like is that it describes how to eat these loaves, because it’s hard to guess just by looking at them. Hoping I get a chance to try one of these loaves someday.
I've spent a lot of time chasing Uzbek bread and plov on YouTube, so I was very very surprised to see an oil company publishing such a beautiful article. I jsut hope it's not a sign of oil exploitation in Uzbekistan...
Uzbekistan has long been one of the largest natural gas exporters in the world and that is set to increase as they have huge untapped reserves. Same story with oil although they aren’t yet a top exporter, so far as I know.
I went to an Uzbek restaurant in SF a couple weeks ago called Sofiya. Highly recommend. Food was so good that I want to visit the country now and probably will within the next year.
1. English transliteration has its own cultural inertia. It's not just about what's most phonetically sensible (that too only for some particular English region: how an American phonetizes non would be different from how a Brit or Aussie would).
2. Don't assume the Uzbeks say this word the same way as the Indians do. It may very well sound closer to "non" in Uzbekistan.
No, Uzbeks themselves use “non” when using Latin alphabet.
Fun fact: in the past Uzbek language has been written in arabic, cyrillic, and, since ~2018, in latin.
In the 1990s I travelled through Xinjiang and Gansu in China's northwest. At the time most of the people in rural areas were Uighur, Hui, Tibetan, or other minorities.
At one of the Uighur bazaars they were cooking all kinds of breads and skewered meat. I remember asking one of the younger guys about one that looked like a toasted puff pastry and he called it 烤包子 in Mandarin, i.e. "roasted dumpling." It had lamb inside, and it was fantastic, like a lighter version of a Cornish pasty.
I know someone who spent ~ a year in rural Kyrgyzstan, and found the food to be very meat-based, with little variety. Maybe different in the cities, since they enjoyed the trips to Bishkek, and possibly Tashkent, somewhat more.
And instead of trying to replicate that - it's a learning experience, you learn the world trying that - some advocate for hideous inductive panels. If I were somewhat religious I would say that this is a blasphemy. An unforgivable sin.
I feel like there must be more interest among native-born Americans in foreign food these days, based on the fact there's 3 Uzbek restaurants within a couple of neighboring cities (which are maybe 200k people total). There's apparently only ~2000 Uzbek-Americans in all of northern IL! And mostly concentrated over an hour's drive away from where these restaurants are.
That said, my wife and I were very interested to try the Tashkent bread. I think this article calls it out - it's better very fresh. It was really good, but not as amazing as we expected (maybe lunch is the time to dine at the Uzbek place closest to us).
I still find it amazing that even (probably) family-run restaurants for such a niche cuisine can make a go of it. I take it as a good sign about American dining preferences.
The Thai government used to sponsor (not sure if they still do) Thai diaspora who want to open a restaurant in a foreign country, it was their way to market the country and attract tourists.
Migrants move around to follow the work. (Think more like "Nomad") Immigrants resettle in new places.
I'm reading more about it, and probably these restaurants survive based on a combination of:
- Family run, keeping labor low (labor always number 1 cost)
- Central Asian and Muslim customers (much more than just Uzbeks)
- Setting up in low-rent locations like strip malls
So a few big nights a week can sustain the family business. I guess there's a way it adds up to a profitable business.
immigrant, im- (variant of in-) ; migrant into your country
emigrant, ex- ; migrant out of your country
both are still migrants. there is no specific cause for migration required to be an migrant.
you just need to move somewhere new to live.
In terms of common usage though, it's as I said, especially in North America.
"Foreign food" or "foreign restaurant" seems to be the norm where I live, but maybe I'm uncultured. "Ethnic" wouldn't offend anyone I don't think.
My main qualm with this usage -- aside from being dated -- is that all cuisines are ethnic, but singling out the hypothetical migrant's as such implies that it is particularly ethnic. So in this sense it is a bit othering.
To be clear, I don't write this to call you out for your usage or accuse you -- I'm just answering your good-faith question.
RE your point, I don't agree that it's so obvious -- cooking and running a restaurant are pretty hard regardless of where you are from!
where did you get this number? does that include chicago, because i live in Chicago area ... seems low.
Figuring some fudge factor too. It could be low - it's hard to find numbers for nationality counts for central Asians broken down by state.
There also used to be 2 actual ethnic Uyghur restaurants (not Chinese from Xinjiang) in SF but they shut down as well.
We would also sometimes make flatbreads from the area but man is it messy to do in your own place with flour flying around everywhere. We do make the flatbreads sometimes but it's usually easier to just buy frozen paratha from the Indian store.
Biggest surprise - everything's stew.
Eggplant is one of those incredible veggies that seemingly not a lot of people know what to do with. You can bake it on a grill or your cooktop stove to give it that amazing smokey taste. I often eat it as-is without adding anything else but pairing with eggs takes it to the next level. There is another dish from that same general region called Ajapsandali which is probably one of the tastiest breakfast meals you'll ever eat if you like eggplant.
The word "non" used throughout the article is the origin of the term "naan bread" from Indian culture (the Central Asian Turks/Mughals who ruled most of India for centuries developed "naan bread").
It just has the consistency of some kind of styrofoam to me (or else just turns to mush if it's overcooked) with a bitter-ish taste I don't like. While it can serve the purpose of "it just soaks up the flavor/sauce of whatever it's cooked in", there are lots of other vegetables/beans/tofu I'd much rather use for that purpose than eggplant.
It's remarkably easy to make at home, although worth trying as a side dish (at a restaurant) if you like Indian food.
When cooking over gas, it is nice to remove the skin in cold water, chop up coarsely, and add yoghurt, garlic, olive oil, salt and herbs, with a good whizzing up following, to make a decent dip for flatbread or anything else.
https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/miso-aubergines-with-to...
Is “aubergine” a true synonym of “eggplant” or are you referring to a regional variety of some kind, different from the “eggplant” in other comments here?
I looked it up and that looks great. Kind of like vegetarian goulash with all of the peppers. And simple. I think we'll try this soon.
That sounds good. Makes me think of hunkar begendi.
garlic/onions: aliums that thrive in most climates
rice: grass that can be drowned (to fuck off pests)
eggs: per day, one chicken produces enough binding enzymes to thicken and modify a meal for 5-8 people
veg/seed oils: cooking, flavor, etc
and since that's in the caspian sea area, they also have a ready supply of tomatoes and eggplant from centuries of trading with asia
That's a funny way of saying Gilan, Iran. The dish was invented by (and is named after) Mohammad Ghasem Khan Vali, the governer of Gilan province.
That aside, this was a great article. There are some great videos on yt as well showing the baking process. But what those videos don’t show that this article points to is the these Uzbek bakers use natural sour dough leavening. I wish this article also included a recipe for the dough.
Another thing this article does that I like is that it describes how to eat these loaves, because it’s hard to guess just by looking at them. Hoping I get a chance to try one of these loaves someday.
(I don't follow the Central Asian energy industry, I just found this on the Internet.)
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/07/07/ancient-bread/
2. Don't assume the Uzbeks say this word the same way as the Indians do. It may very well sound closer to "non" in Uzbekistan.
Source: grew up there
At one of the Uighur bazaars they were cooking all kinds of breads and skewered meat. I remember asking one of the younger guys about one that looked like a toasted puff pastry and he called it 烤包子 in Mandarin, i.e. "roasted dumpling." It had lamb inside, and it was fantastic, like a lighter version of a Cornish pasty.
And instead of trying to replicate that - it's a learning experience, you learn the world trying that - some advocate for hideous inductive panels. If I were somewhat religious I would say that this is a blasphemy. An unforgivable sin.