Plov and Politics

Akyl and Chingiz make plov

One of my very first Kyrgyz experiences (blogged about here) occurred when friends of a coworker (who later became friends of mine as well) cooked plov for a bunch of the teachers at The London School. They told us that they were experts at cooking plov because they were from Osh, in the south of Kyrgyzstan, and that only people from the south could cook *real* plov.

Even though we LOVED our "plov parties" as we grew to call them, we couldn't expect Akyl and Chingiz to cook for us all the time. They were right though; their plov tasted better than most of the plov we found at local restaurants... at least until we discovered Jalalabad.

Sadly, I neglected to take any photos of Jalalabad, despite the numerous evenings we spent there, lounging on the tapchans, eating incredibly delicious (and cheap) plov. The place was always packed.

Imagine my surprise when, while browsing articles on Kyrgyzstan today, I found one that discussed Jalalabad - the restaurant in Bishkek, not the city in the south of Kyrgyzstan:

Sharing the same name as Mr Bakiyev’s home town in southern Kyrgyzstan, the Jalalabad became a haunt for the southerners who flocked to the capital, filling government and business jobs as the president consolidated his power.... Admitting its heyday was over, the Jalalabad barricaded its doors and warned of a newly limited menu – if it ever opened again.

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