The main food in Tajikistan is нон (naan).  Naan is found throughout Central Asia. It is served at every meal. If a Tajik has food but not naan, he will say he is out of food. If naan is dropped on the ground, people will put it up on a high ledge for beggars or birds. You are not supposed to put naan upside down or bad luck will fall upon you. The same scenario occurs if you put anything on top of naan (unless it is other naan).

Ош (Osh) is the Tajik national dish. When we lived in a southern city called Kurgon-Teppa, we had this about three times a week. Understandably, we got tired of it quickly. Osh is a rice dish with carrots, meat, and lots of oil. The meat is in chunks, and the carrots are chopped finely, like thin carrot sticks. When we were in America on furlough once, a church tried to make it. The rice had meatballs, the carrots were cut a different way, and they did not put enough oil. Osh is yellow due to the carrots and oil. I was six years old at the time, and I completely missed the “osh.” I found out after the meal that they had tried to make it. When we left Tajikistan for a few years, I was tired of it. My sister strongly disliked it. Now we rarely have it, and if we do, we eat it with spoons. The traditional way to eat osh is to get a platter, pile it with the rice-carrot-oil mix, put meat on top, and share it between two or three people. Often people would (and probably still) eat it with their hands.

The traditional drink is tea. Tajiks don’t drink water unless it has been boiled, as the tap water is unsafe. Since we are foreigners, we like ice in our cold drinks. Tajiks have said that doing so is bad for our health, and if we get sick, they blame the ice in the water (or soft drink).