First Uzbek Celebration

On Sunday, August 31, my husband and I celebrated Uzbekistan’s twenty-third Independence Day (1991) by visiting a Russian/Uzbek restaurant in Arlington, VA called Rus Uz.

The weather was quite hot and rainy, giving the photo below of the front of the restaurant a misty glow!

We started off by enjoying a pot of delicious green tea, ordering from a menu written in both Russian and English.

We enjoyed flipping through a large coffee table book about Uzbekistan, filled with beautiful photos of the cities and countryside. Texts were written in Russian, Uzbek and English.

Then we ordered some Russian beer and red wine, and tried piroshki for appetizers. The restaurant’s menu describes piroshki this way: “Small dough buns or pies stuffed with variable fillings; traditional fillings include fish – sautéed with onions and mixed with hard-boiled chopped eggs; meat – boiled and chopped, then mixed with sautéed onions and eggs; potato – mashed, then mixed with eggs and smetana (sour cream); cabbage – sautéed, plus egg and spices.“

We selected the beef, and it was served piping hot and delicious! My husband ordered chicken Kiev with vegetables…

…and I had plov (pilaf), Uzbekistan’s national dish. Plov is a flavorful blend of rice, lamb, carrots, chickpeas, carrots, raisins and spices! It also came with a delicious side salad of tomatoes, onions and cucumbers.

I can’t wait to try all the yummy variations of plov that are sure to exist in Tashkent and beyond.

Finally, we ordered a Napolean pastry to share, which some may know as mille-feuille.

We will definitely go back again to Rus Uz! There are many other dishes that I am eager to try.