A kitchen where everything is made by hand

Saray is a Uyghur restaurant in Tashkent. Uyghur cooking grew along the Silk Road, between China and Central Asia, and took from both: hand-pulled noodles and high-heat wok work from the east, the tandoor, lamb and pilaf from the west. That is why dapanji and shurpa share one menu — not a fusion, but the original tradition.

Laghman noodles are pulled by hand right before serving; they cannot be made in advance, and that is where the texture comes from. Meat goes over charcoal, flatbread is baked in the tandoor through the day, broths are started in the morning. The spicing stays on the Uyghur side: cumin, red pepper, garlic chives.

The whole kitchen is halal. We cook for a single guest and for a full table alike — the dining room takes groups, and the menu is published in four languages including Chinese, because a large share of our guests arrive with tour groups.