Chorsu Bazaar

Chorsu is the market that has stood at Tashkent's crossroads since the Silk Road years, now housed under a huge blue-tiled dome with trading spilling into the streets around it. Inside, the layout is by product: a whole floor of dairy and meat, another of spices in cones and pyramids, aisles of dried apricots, raisins and nuts sold by weight after generous tasting, and stacks of round non bread stamped with patterns. Outside sit the food counters - plov cooked in cauldrons the size of bathtubs, samsa pulled hot from tandoor walls, shashlik over coals - and this is where Tashkent actually eats.

What you actually see

• The domed hall - spice pyramids and dairy counters under the blue cupola.
• The plov cauldrons - Uzbekistan's national dish cooked at scale.
• Tandoor samsa - pastries baked on the walls of clay ovens.
• Dried fruit and nut stalls - tasting your way through apricots and raisins.

When to go

Mornings are the market at full power, and plov is traditionally a lunch dish - arriving by late morning catches both. Any season works, though summer is hot enough that the covered halls are welcome. Sunday is the busiest day.

Honest expectations

Prices for visitors start higher than for locals and gentle bargaining is normal, especially for dried fruit and souvenirs. Insistent tasting invitations come with sales pressure; a friendly no works. The meat and dairy hall is pungent and confronting for some. Keep bags close in the crowds. Cash in small notes is far easier than cards.

Nearby

Kukeldash Madrasah beside the market, the Hazrati Imam complex and Tashkent's metro stations.