Tag Archives: Tajik

Ramadan 2023 – Nishallo

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Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, the holy month in which the Qur’an was revealed to the prophet Muhammad; this year, Ramadan begins at sundown on Wednesday, March 22. During that period, about 1.6 billion Muslims around the world fast from dawn until dusk. The meal that marks the end of each day’s fast is called iftar and often commences with three sweet dates to help restore blood sugar levels, after which the menu will vary by country and regional specialties.

This is nishallo (aka nisholda), an exceedingly sweet dessert that’s native to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and prepared exclusively during Ramadan; it makes its appearance as part of iftar. Made primarily from sugar, whipped egg whites, and water, it’s a dead ringer for Marshmallow Fluff (as you’d expect from the ingredients) if perhaps a bit classier because of a touch of star anise and/or licorice root. I understand that for some natives of Uzbekistan, it rekindles heartwarming childhood memories, not unlike Fluff for some nostalgic Americans. It’s often used as a dip for warm flatbread and is particularly appropriate after 10 to 17 hours of abstention from eating because its high sugar content is said to jumpstart the metabolism.

I found it, along with other Ramadan specialties like halim or haleem (see yesterday’s post), at Tashkent Market, 713 Brighton Beach Ave in Brooklyn, one of the highlights on my Little Odessa ethnojunket. If you like the idea of tasting something new and delicious from another part of the world, please visit my Ethnojunkets page to learn more about my neighborhood food tours and join in the fun!

More about Ramadan foods during the month.

Ramadan Mubarak!
 
 

Ramadan 2022 – Nishallo

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Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, the holy month in which the Qur’an was revealed to the prophet Muhammad; this year, Ramadan begins at sundown on Saturday, April 2. During that period, about 1.6 billion Muslims around the world fast from dawn until dusk. The meal that marks the end of each day’s fast is called iftar and often commences with three sweet dates that help restore blood sugar levels, after which the menu will vary by country and regional specialties.

This is nishallo (aka nisholda), an exceedingly sweet dessert that’s native to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and prepared exclusively during Ramadan; it makes its appearance as part of iftar. Made primarily from sugar, whipped egg whites, and water, it’s a dead ringer for Marshmallow Fluff (as you’d expect from the ingredients) if perhaps a bit classier because of a touch of star anise and/or licorice root. I understand that for some natives of Uzbekistan, it rekindles heartwarming childhood memories, not unlike Fluff for some nostalgic Americans. It’s often used as a dip for warm flatbread and is particularly appropriate after 17 hours of abstention from eating because its high sugar content is said to jumpstart the metabolism.

I found it, along with other Ramadan specialties, at Tashkent Market, 713 Brighton Beach Ave in Brooklyn, one of the highlights on my Little Odessa ethnojunket. If you like the idea of tasting something new and delicious from another part of the world, please visit my Ethnojunkets page to learn more about my neighborhood food tours and join in the fun!

More about Ramadan foods during the month.

Ramadan Mubarak!
 
 

Ramadan 2020

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Instagram Post 5/20-22/2020

 
Three posts from last year’s celebration of Ramadan which concludes this year on May 23.

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This is sellou (سلّو, aka sfouf or zmita), a unique unbaked Moroccan sweet made from toasted flour and ground almonds, sesame seeds, sugar or honey, cinnamon, and anise; as you’d expect, recipes vary from family to family. At Nablus Sweets, 6812 5th Ave, Brooklyn, I spotted a huge brown mountain of it and purchased a small knoll, broken here into two little hillocks. It’s soft in texture, somewhere along the cookie<–>brownie continuum but drier, crumbly but crunchy from nuts. Simply break off a chunk and enjoy, perhaps with a cup of tea.

If your knowledge of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean sweets is informed primarily by honey drenched baklava and kanafeh, give this one a try (available particularly around Ramadan); I highly recommend it.


Little Egypt Restaurant, 66-28 Fresh Pond Road, Ridgewood, featured a special dessert coinciding with Mother’s Day last year: Om Ali (you might see umm ali), أم على. The phrase translates as “Ali’s mother” and of course, fables abound as to its name. Essentially Egypt’s answer to bread pudding (only better if you ask me), it’s made with phyllo dough, milk (and occasionally, richer dairy considerations) and sugar, sometimes elevated with raisins, nuts, and cinnamon. There are legions of recipes for this traditional Ramadan treat; that day, our delightful version came with sour cream and ground nuts on the side for garnish, ad libitum.


On a visit last year to Tashkent Market at 713 Brighton Beach Ave in Brooklyn, I picked up some nishallo (aka nisholda), an exceedingly sweet dessert that’s native to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and prepared exclusively during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Made primarily from sugar, whipped egg whites, and water, it’s a dead-on ringer for Marshmallow Fluff (as you’d expect from the ingredients) if perhaps a bit classier because of a touch of star anise and/or licorice root. It makes its appearance as part of iftar, the evening meal that breaks the daily fast. Frequently used as a dip for the flatbread naan, it’s particularly appropriate after 17 hours of abstention from eating because its high sugar content jumpstarts the metabolism.

Ramadan Mubarak!
 
 

Nishallo

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Instagram Post 6/7/2019

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On a recent ethnojunket through Brooklyn’s Little Odessa, we visited one of my favorite venues, Tashkent Market at 713 Brighton Beach Ave. One of my goals on these food tours is to introduce guests to tasty food they’ve never sampled before, but this item was new to me as well and like everything else in their extensive array of prepared foods, it was home-made. Needless to say, I was compelled to buy it, take it home, and research the heck out of it.

Nishallo (aka nisholda) is an exceedingly sweet dessert that’s native to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and prepared exclusively during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Made primarily from sugar, whipped egg whites, and water, it’s a dead-on ringer for Marshmallow Fluff (as you’d expect from the ingredients) if perhaps a bit classier because of a touch of star anise and/or licorice root. It makes its appearance as part of iftar, the evening meal that breaks the daily fast. Frequently used as a dip for the flatbread naan, it’s particularly appropriate after 17 hours of abstention from eating because its high sugar content jumpstarts the metabolism.

Are you interested in tasting something new and delicious from another part of the world too? Check out my ethnic neighborhood food tours! Click here to learn more.
 
 

Rayhon

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Instagram Post 5/8/2019

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The food of Uzbekistan is relatively easy to track down in Brooklyn; that of Tajikistan, its neighbor to the east, less so. The cuisines are similar, but Tajikistan claims kurutob (you may see qurutob or qurutov) as its own. We enjoyed a vegetarian version of it (also available with meat) at Rayhon, the Tajik-Uzbek restaurant at 1915 Avenue U in Brooklyn’s Homecrest.

[1] Essentially a bread salad (Tajikistan’s answer to Italy’s panzanella, perhaps), kurutob ascends beyond the level of granting second life to shards from a stale loaf in that it features fatir, the delicate, flaky, layered bread that provides the base for the herby (rayhon means basil) salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and red onion. Topping off the qurutob is its essential piquant sauce made from qurut (hence the name), a salty yogurt cheese, that gets soaked up by the fatir.

[2] The yogurty fatir gets its well-deserved moment in the spotlight, downstage.

[3] Crispy chuchvara (Russia’s answer to chuchvara are pelmeni, BTW), fried beef and lamb dumplings with an allium troika: caramelized onions provide sweetness, raw scallions for a little bite, and a few slivers of red onion just because. Not as redundant as you might think. But the dish as a whole was a little monotonous and could have been rescued by a bit of sauce on the side.
 
 

Cafe Dushanbe

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When I write about restaurants on Instagram, they’re usually brief takes accompanied by a photo or two. (You can see my feed right here on ethnojunkie.com, updated almost daily, by selecting the “Instagram” category from my home page – no signup required.) But because of Instagram’s character count limitations, it’s often necessary to break up a review into several parts. This one originally appeared as three posts from 2018 and three more from 2019.

Named for the capital of Tajikistan, Café Dushanbe (formerly Café Rokhat) brings its yogurty cuisine to Brooklyn and does so admirably. The Kurutob alone was worth the trip to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn but there’s lots more to recommend Café Dushanbe.

Here, in no special order, are a few of the extraordinary dishes we sampled.

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Kurutob

One of the most impressive dishes we experienced (so much so that one of our group requested an additional order of it to go) was Kurutob (you might see qurutob), the pride of Tajikistan’s gastronomy. It starts with a base of fatir, flaky, layered flatbread which is then invigorated with qatiq, a delicious homemade yogurt, along with sautéed onion, red onion, tomato, cucumber, herbs, and spicy green pepper for an essential kick. Mix well for maximum enjoyment. Tajikistan’s answer to Italy’s panzanella, perhaps?

Qatiq, Fatir, and Kulcha

Straight-ahead qatiq along with two breads – the fatir and puffy kulcha – plus a ramekin of flavorful herb butter. If your only encounter with yogurt has been in the dairy aisle of your local supermart, you need to try this posthaste.

Non-toki

A concave behemoth with a nod to matzoh.

Pan Fried Calf’s Liver

GBD (Golden Brown and Delicious). Are you a liver lover or a liver leaver? In the aftermath, not a morsel remained – and I had been hoping for leftovers. Ah well.
 
 
Everybody loves dumplings and every cuisine has its own traditional renditions. I’m no exception to that sweeping statement and IMHO, Café Dushanbe has it knocked in this department. Manti are fist-sized steamed dumplings stuffed with chopped lamb, onions and herbs and are widespread throughout Central Asian and South Caucasian countries. This version is filled with relatively large, succulent hunks of seasoned lamb and are truly among the best I’ve ever tasted. We ordered two styles, fried…

Fried Manti

…and steamed. Both came with Tajik yogurt and were superb.

Steamed Manti

Samsa Gizhda

And just to round out the trio, we ordered Samsa Gizhda – baked (for contrast, right?) meat pies, a savory blend of lamb and beef encased in a light dough and served with a tomato based sauce.

Morkovcha Salad

Abbreviated history lesson: In the 1920s-30s, the Japanese occupied Korea; some Koreans managed to escape to Russia, but Stalin subsequently moved them to Central Asia, mostly Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. These people, the Koryo-saram, unable to obtain the cabbage they needed to prepare kimchi, created a version made from carrots, red pepper, garlic, and ground coriander seeds. Abbreviated gastronomic review: yum.

Shashlik

Three remarkable selections from the Barbecue section of the menu. In front, the biggest, juiciest, most perfectly seasoned lamb ribs I’ve ever tasted. Behind those, Beef Roulade “Dushanbe”; I usually eschew beef in favor of meats with a little more personality. Dushanbe’s beef roulades are rolled around fat for flavor and accentuated with indescribably delicious seasoning; they were so good, they made me believe in beef again. Lurking beneath, skewers of tender, flavorful lamb.

Homestyle Potatoes

Where would meat be without potatoes? This skillet of potatoes topped with saucy shiitake, oyster, and button mushrooms in the company of fried onions and herbs was the perfect partner.

Syuzma

A bracing salad of radishes, cucumbers, and greens was dressed with yogurt by a different designation, “syuzma”, sour milk that had been strained through a canvas bag; for comparison, see qatiq above. Indeed, Syuzma was the name (and the whole point) of the dish. So many yogurts, so little time.

Okroshka

Okroshka is a cold summer soup of Russian heritage, yogurt-based of course, made from boiled potatoes, raw vegetables, eggs, dill and other herbs. I neglected to inquire about specific ingredients, but I can assure you it was delicious; I guess I’ll just have to go back and ask.

As if I need an excuse. 😉
 
 
Café Dushanbe is located at 1788 Sheepshead Bay Road, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.