The importance of gastronomic tourism in tourism sphere

THE IMPORTANCE OF GASTRONOMIC TOURISM IN TOURISM SPHERE.


Umarova Zebo Xafizovna
Termez State University


Abstract: this article gives information about gastronomic tourism of Uzbekistan, the main items of Uzbek cuisine and regions of the country specialized to prepare particular type of dish. Also article depicts the main uzbek dish – plov, differences in preparing this food among regions.
Keywords: gastronomy tourism, cuisine, regions, Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, plov.
Uzbekistan national dishes and Uzbek cuisine have already been liked by most visitors from all over the world. Uzbek cuisine is most known national and well-developed aspect of the Uzbekistan culture and Uzbekistan people. It is one of the most savoury and various in tastes cuisine in Central Asia. Situated on the caravan routes of the Great Silk Road, Uzbekistan has been assimilating the most interesting and original receipts of food from various countries. Each meal of Uzbekistan has its own traditional way of cooking, and one dish has a lot of methods of preparing throughout the country.
The main items of Uzbek cuisine which attract lots of tourists are plov, soup, kazan kabab, khanum, samsa, lagman, manti, dolma, beshbarmak, yakhna, shashlik and others. Plov is the symbol of uzbek hospitality, khan of uzbek dastarkhan. It is prepared in every Uzbekistan family.
In various regions of Uzbekistan, people have their own recipes of Uzbek plov preparation. For instance, Bukharan people prepare plov with green gram. Samarkand plov is light, Fergana plov is brown on the contrary. In Samarkand people put meat, carrot, rice in layers and steam it. In Tashkent plov all ingredients are roasted at the beginning. On February 3rd 2017 in Tashkent took place the ceremony to certify the inclusion of plov in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The Association of Cooks of Uzbekistan declared plov as the curator of traditions of national pride [1, p. 26]. On 8 September 2017, within the frames of the "Uzbegim" festival of traditional culture, the world record on cooking the biggest plov was set and this plov entered the Guinness World Records' Book. The event was hold on the Sayilgoh street, Tashkent. Plov for this purpose was prepared in a special pot (called kazan). Its diameter was 4,2 meters and could hold up to 8000 liters. The pot weighs 7070 kilos and is 1 meter deep. The record-aiming dish was around 8 tonnes [2]. To prepare this plov 1,5 tonnes beef, 400 kilos mutton, 1,9 tonnes rice, 2,7 tonnes carrot, 220 kilo onion, 440 litres oil, 57 kilo salt put on the pot. Over 50 well-known cooks got together from across the entire country to prepare the record dish [3]. Ready plov was distributed to guests of the event and residents of Tashkent.
Each region of Uzbekistan is specialized to preparing and cooking particular kind of dish. For example: Tashkent. In Tashkent tourists can find more than 17 kinds of plov. The recipes among them vary by their usage of different types of meat, berries, rice and even fruits. Samarkand. Historical region Samarkand will surprise you with the opportunity to taste boiled chickpeas with meat served on Samarkand bread.
Jizzakh samsa can weigh over 500 g. Just for the record, this type of samsa, is recorded as the most delicious not only in Uzbekistan, but also beyond the country’s borders.
Fergana. Kazan kabob is cooked in 10 regions, in addition to Fergana, where it is most highly renowned and the recipes in every region are all different.
Andijan will delight tourists with appetizing lagman. Its noodle strips can grow to nearly 600 meters before boiling.
Namangan. If tourists visit Namangan, they do not miss the chance to taste soup in a bottle-shorva. Amazingly, this dish can be kept under heat for a whole day. Bukhara’s plov oshi sufi stands out from the rest.
Oshi sufi is boiled at first and only then cooked in a copper pan known as a kazan. Navoi. Dolma, beloved for its tasty meat and rice filling, can be found in Navoi…without any meat at all.
Kashkadarya. In the Kashkadarya region you can enjoy Chiyali yakhna, a delicacy made of pressed meat. It is cooked only in one place – Chiyali bazaar, near Shakhrisabz.
Surkhandarya is bursting with secrets and one of them is a recipe more than a 100 years old-chupancha, made from roast lamb Khorezm. The cuisine in Khorezm is famous not only its unique taste, but also for the dedicated work of the cooks. Ijjon, tar-tar made of meat, is chopped by axe and knife for several hours nonstop. Karakalpakstan.
People in Karakalpakstan creative approach to cooking beshbarmak. In addition to meat, they often add vegetables. 59 Nowadays, Uzbekistan tour operators are working under preparing gastronomic maps for the tourists to create them more flexibility during their travel around the country.
Also, there is a book named “365 Days of Sun” which helps tourists to taste best dishes of the country. All unique food is pivotal to the development of gastronomy tourism in Uzbekistan.
References

1. Magazine: Visit Uzbekistan. June-September, 2017. Р. 26.

2. [Electronic resource]. URL: https://mir24.tv/news/v-knigu-rekordov-ginnesa-vuzbekistane-prigotovili-bolee-7-tonn-plova/ (date of access: 08.09.2017)