Ubiquitously Uzbekistan – First Impressions of Tashkent at the Chorsu Bazaar
The bazaars are as much for the locals as they are for the tourists. The Chorsu Bazaar features a few distinct areas of a marketplace. There are stalls for dried goods and clothes, there are open-area stalls for knick-knacks and fresh fruits. And then there is the dome, where the covered market sells all kinds of butchered and preserved meats, and of course, the myriad-colored spices that exude a complex fragrance.
My first sightseeing in Uzbekistan was therefore a sensory tour. The familiarity of world-common daily goods juxtaposed the unfamiliarity of Uzbek-specific items. At every turn in the bazaar we would encounter this strangely stimulating experience of “I know this,” and then soon “but what is that?” From its dough to its bread, from its spices to its sweets, Chorsu Bazaar offered a variety of goods that suggests prosperity and abundance. We toured there wide-eyed for a good hour or so. And that was my first impression of Tashkent.
About the Chorsu Bazaar
Calum Macleod wrote in Uzbekistan: The Golden Road to Samarkand that Chorsu Bazaar “was the local bastion of capitalism throughout socialism’s tenure.” Surely, the Soviets laid their helping hands on the marketplace by giving it the famous dome, which was designed by architect Vladimir Azimov in 1980 as an example of Soviet modernism. But Chorsu’s history has gone far back in time. This very same bazaar was where ancient merchants traded their goods. Chorsu, meaning “crossroads” in Persian, was the very center of international trade in Tashkent.
Perhaps the Soviet hand on the Chorsu Bazaar ruined it for me. I was hoping for tents propped up by wooden staff in open-street stalls, with sacks and sacks of spices. There is that stereotypical image of Arabic / middle eastern culture, that the bazaar has this dimension of the exotic, where people haggle amidst donkey-riding merchants. Surely, even in the Middle East, I did not see that kind of scenery, but I was hoping that Uzbekistan being even lesser-known in the world would have “preserved” that imagined character of the ancient silk road.
Nope, for as long as the Soviets were there, the Chorsu Bazaar was modern, clean, orderly and, with the exception of that steely coldness, every bit like the wet markets of Hong Kong minus the dome. Although haggling is still expected, it certainly was not in the vicinity of cutting out half of the asking price.
Bread is the Staff of Life
We exited the dome and went ahead to another covered area. A lot of vendors were selling pastries and confectionaries. We came across a whole lot of Turkish-looking sweets, but I certainly was not familiar enough to identify any of them. They looked exceeding sweet to me, so taking them as literal eye-candies would suffice for my purpose.
The Uzbek bread is commonly served on the Uzbek table, especially during breakfast time. It has a hard and dry texture. As unleavened bread, perhaps it can’t be said to be delicious as much as it is for the purpose of filling the stomach. Yet when we were peeping in the large bakery in this section of the Chorsu Bazaar, the gentlemen there waved at us, “come in!.” We came to the rolling table for the dough, and then a really good look and picture-taking at the clay oven. The oven seemed to use gas as its source of heat. The workers simply slapped the kneaded dough onto the walls of the oven for a baked goodness. It smelled very good in there indeed.
Shashlik, Our First Course in Uzbekistan
Finally, we decided to grab a little something for lunch at the market. There was a large seating area for open-space dining. The aroma of charcoal-grilled meats was mouth-watering. We sat down at the section where a staff member was speaking English to us. Everybody was having a merry good time there.
Shashlik would be the excellent first introduction of Uzbek food for us. I think my friend ordered lamb and I ordered chicken, as I do not eat mutton. The Uzbek bread was toasted on top of our shaslik and served warm.
We also came across the Honym. The lady who spoke English told us that this is “Uzbek lasagna.” At first glance its red color indicated very hot and spicy, but it was actually a tomato base, just like the lasagna. The dough was a potato dough. The Honym is a common Uzbek food, but that would turn out to be the only Honym that I tried in this trip. This meal cost us 5 USD. It was actually a bit more expensive than we thought Uzbekistan would be. As it turned out, costs for food was generally more expensive than what we have budgeted for.
At this food market, the warmth of the Uzbek people really touched us. They were certainly very busy at this lunch hour. The English-speaking lady kept chatting up with us. They liked to ask us where we were from. When we say China, everybody knew what we were talking about.
Handcrafts at Chorsu Bazaar
At the Chorsu Bazaar there are some souvenir shops that are worth taking a look at. The most eye-catching items there were the tea pot sets. The colors and craftsmanship are distinctly Uzbek. The owner was generally asking for about USD $20 for each set. Needless to say, that would be quite a bit cheaper than the well-packaged ones you find at the airport souvenir shops. My advice is, when you see something that is the desire of your heart, buy. Once you head out to the other cities, you may not be able to find the same kind of goods even though they look similar.
The next stop was the Hazrati Imam Complex, and we would be walking there from the Chorsu bazaar.
Sources
Calum Macleod, Uzbekistan: the Golden Road to Samarkand (2014).
The Wikipedia on Chorsu Bazaar.