Dushanbe dinners.
 

Well I'm expenses dining again. Here are some samples.
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Pumpkin soup thick enough to walk across.
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Yak meat and braised vegetables.
Both dishes were delicious. The yak meat was just as you'd expect, a little coarser and tougher than beef but not unpleasantly so.
I washed this down with a bottle of sparkling mineral water.
I ate this in a Western owned restaurant on the main drag in the centre of town.
It set me back around $24.


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Yesterday it had got cold and dark before I began to think of going for dinner so I didn't bother and just ate biscuits in my room. They were the Tajikistan equivalent of Garibaldi biscuits (aka squashed fly biscuits). If they're not a familiar concept for youse Americans you'll have to google'em.

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Today I ventured into a large Tajik owned restaurant in the middle of town. More about the premises in a cities and travel thread (too lazy to set up link as I'm tapatalking this to you).
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Rassolnik - a tasty soup of veg and meat, with chopped pickled gherkins in, parsley, and a dollop of sour cream. Also in the pic, bread and green tea.
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If you've followed my food threads you'll have seen these guys before: here they're called mantu. Filled with chopped meat (beef or mutton ) and onions. And another dollop of sour cream.
This little lot set me back $5. Five.

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That all looks so delicious. Especially the pumpkin soup and yak meat. I would love to try that.

And I dropped in to a supermarket (aimed at foreigners) on the way back to the guest house to pick up some snacks for supper.
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The most expensive items were the chocolate bars which represent half the cost, the dried apricots were another quarter of the cost and the mandarins, guava juice (!) and bio yoghurt the remainder.
The bio yoghurt is to battle the digestive tract consequences of the foreign meat: it seemed to work the other day after the yak meat.
This lot cost around $12.

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OK, I see the squashed fly reference. ;)

hurk.

I read squashed fly and decided some things should remain a mystery. so, thanks for that.

limey--I love these threads, please keep the pictures and the travelogue coming. travel safely!

Yay for the bio yoghurt. Although there was some internal rioting and a LOT of wind I don't seem to be suffering such awful consequences after eating the local food this time round! :D
Or is that TMI?
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Today's dinner in the same splendid restaurant :
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Borscht - not as deep red as some, so a little light on the beetroot but delicious nonetheless.
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Salad. There were a couple of surprises in here, namely the chilli (which I didn't eat) and the raw garlic (which I did). Bottom right on the plate was some sort of radish. Also starring cucumber, tomato and parsley.
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These looked more appetising IRL and were delicious. Kabob. Minced meat and seasonings formed into blobs and grilled. Sort of lulya kebab ...
Plus tea and bread as before.
Cost around $10.

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That should slow up the local lotharios eyeing the hot tourist lady. ;)

Between the peppers and the kefir (I'm very fond of bottled kefir) you ought easily to avoid any unrest in the interior.

Back to my fave restaurant for dinner again today, my last day in Dushanbe.
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This is what in Europe we call Russian salad, but throughout the SU it was rather ironically known as Olivier, named after the fancy French chef of some pre-revolutionary nobleman. It looked better than this pic gives credit for and tasted good too. Diced cooked potato and carrot, diced gherkins, cooked peas, chopped boiled egg, ham etc in mayonnaise.
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Sadly this bread was a little stale.
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I couldn't resist fried quail, could I? The pattern round the plate is made up of sliced cucumber and olives, a dod of tomato and lettuce. The sauce was a sort of sweet chilli sauce.
Total cost about $9.

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How did you eat the quail? Did you use your hands, or utensils? It looks laborious to eat.

I briefly tried the knife and fork but decided hands was best. There were some surprisingly meaty chunks on that bird, but also a lot of teensy bones.

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Is this strictly tourist stuff, or do the locals celebrating a birthday/anniversary eat here?