First impressions from Tashkent: a bakery lover’s paradise!

I spent about a week in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and the main focus was chilling, which was much needed after spending most of the previous four weeks constantly on-the-go and, most recently, experiencing a bout of food poisoning that put me out of commission for several days.

There are not many photos from my time in Tashkent except of beautiful crafted pastries and baked goods. But, I’ll be back in September!

My first impression of Tashkent is that it is a bakery lover’s paradise! There are many Western-style bakeries and patisseries here in Tashkent and if you know me well, you’ll know that this makes me very happy. It had been a month of being dessert-free due to a combination of not having access and or cravings, but it just so happened that I was experiencing anovulation* and had a strong craving for sweets while in Tashkent. Lucky for me, there’s a plethora of bakeries here, so I happily spent my time exploring while catching up on this blog.

* anovulation = all the hormones and symptoms of a period but without the actual bleeding - yay! Shame that they don’t teach this in health education classes or at the doctors and that it takes Google to figure this out, but that’s a whole other conversation.

Anyways other than being delighted by all the bakeries, here’s a lightning round of first impressions from Tashkent with photos of baked goods sprinkled in.

An example of the beautiful architecture in Tashkent. The city contains a mix of neoclassical architecture (what comes to mind when you think of Paris, although I’m aware it’s not exactly the same thing) and Soviet brutalist architecture (the very minimalist, cubist, and sometimes ugly massive, monolithic buildings).

• It’s hard to count and manage cash here! 1 USD = ~12,000 Uzbek som. So you can imagine that even having 20 USD means a whole wad of cash - thats almost 250,000 Uzbek som. Banknotes range from 1000 som to 100,000 som and it is very easy to mix up that 10,000 and 100,000 som. I always have to do a second glance to make sure I’m giving out the right amount of cash - all those zeros!

• Tashkent is the most Westernized city I’ve visited in Central Asia, even more so than Almaty. It has a strong European feel, which I think this is due to how the city is laid out. Tashkent reminds of Paris in some ways thanks to the large roundabouts that circle museums and monuments designed in a neoclassical style. Part of it is also due to the number of cafes that dot the sidewalks with their outdoor seating spaces. Of course this could also be entirely due to the fact that my hostel was in one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Tashkent.

• There seems to be a prominent East Asian presence in Tashkent which is quite exciting! This means being able to find seaweed sheets and familiar ingredients at small Korean and Chinese mom-and-pop shops. This also means lots of K-beauty stores aka my happy place. It’s been fun browsing through brands I’ve read about but were hard to access back in the US. What I love is that many of the most effective K-beauty brands are quite affordable and better priced than the brands back home.

• Horse meat isn’t as prevalent here as compared to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. I haven’t really seen it on the menus or in grocery stores here in Tashkent, although that could be due to being in the most Western city in Uzbekistan (though to be fair, Kazakhstan’s Almaty did have horse meat featured on most menus). I wonder if this is because Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan’s nomadic history have a stronger influence on the cuisine than in Uzbekistan.

Excited at how easy it was to find seaweed and soy sauce at the Korean grocery store. I also came across several Chinese grocery shops that featured uniquely Chinese snacks and ingredients, such as beef noodle soup paste and Chinese noodles. Of course, 老幹媽 was also present!

At Breadly Cafe, moments before I got to hold one of the cutest babies ever

• Uzbekistan seems to be a wealthier country and have a better infrastructure than Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The moment my bus crossed the border from Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan, I experienced a smoother ride and cleaner, wider roads.

• I’ve encountered more expats in Tashkent than in Almaty, and there’s a nice familiarity in meeting fellow Americans and hearing about their lives living in Tashkent. A fond memory is meeting some American expats at a cafe. I got to hold and embrace a baby (grateful and honored that Clarissa trusted a complete stranger with her one-year old son!) and talk to him in Chinese (his grandparents are from Taiwan) which was honestly maybe the highlight of that week. I miss seeing, hugging, and playing with my friends and family’s little ones.

Rating: 4/5. Great flakiness but too much filling

An imitation of NYC Lafayette Bakery’s internet-famous Supreme Croissant. These have been popping up a lot all over the world and appropriately labeled “NYC Croissant” I’m guessing to avoid any trademark infringement

Rating: 2/5. Disappointing as their other cakes were quite good.

A tiny hazelnut-filled chocolate tart from Cake Lab.

Rating: 5/5. SCRUMPTIOUS

Cheesecake from Breadly. Love that the crust isn’t just on the bottom, but also on the side.

I’ll be back in Tashkent in mid-September to spend a bit more time in Uzbekistan and exploring famous Samarkand and Bukhara. The latest updates are:

• I’m headed to Georgia (the country, not the US state) from mid-August to mid-September! Georgia wasn’t originally in the plan but I’ve been feeling a tug towards Georgia for the past several weeks, a feeling in my gut that’s directing me there, so I ended up booking tickets to spend a month there

• I’m getting a new passport! My primary reason for spending time in Tashkent before flying to Georgia was to renew my passport. I wrote about my experience here.

• I’ve booked my tickets for Nepal! I’ll be spending some time hiking there later this year, so I’m grateful that I’ll be breaking up the periods of hiking with some time in Georgia (hello wine!).

A different type of bakery without the sweets.

This type of traditional bread is famous all throughout Central Asia, and while not a dessert, it’s still quite good.