Lvdvskiy/Borodinskiy is how it is labeled.
Iām def intrigued with the difference between OG and no yeast (also more $$) so would love to hear your experience. I also want to try the buckwheat loaf but wonder how all the loaves differentiate themselves. At last, I canāt consume that much carbs
Squash?
I resisted those last time
Probably not next time
Spinach. Strong recommend.
I finally made it to the Manhattan Tashkent. When I walked in, I thought I was in heaven. Bought some labne, about 3/4 the price of Whole Foods, and some muscat grapes, and for $2 each, two cartons Driscoll-type raspberriesā¦good prices.
Also bought a few items from the prepared buffet and I must say that I was really disappointed once I got home and tasted everything.
I neglected to take photos and am not sure Iāll remember the names of what I bought but here goes:
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Kashkavalliā¦I first tried this cheese-stuffed bread from a tiny bakery on Neptune Avenue and I swooned over how great it was. I bought two round ones at Tashkent. the pastry was very doughy and heavy and the cheese, although oozing in a good way, similar to hot mozzarella, had very little taste; I think āleadenā is a good descriptor. It was nowhere near as good as the one from Neptune Avenue, years agoā¦ And at $8 each, not a good value.
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Large-ish triangle pastries, bubbled o the top and stuffed with potato and mushrooms. The filling was very tasty but there was very little of it. The pastry was better but not at all great.
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Small, fluted dough vaguely triangular pastry stuffed with pumpkin. (Maybe samsa??). Better than the first two items but not superb. Again, too little filling for the amount of pastry. But I would try this again.
They were cold by dinner time, so I heated them all, gently, in the oven at 300-degrees for about 8 minutes or so; I do not think the pastries suffered much from the reheating so that was not the problem.
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Dessert: The best item, by far: A chartreuse/pistacchio colored sponge-cake-ey roll, stuffed with a white creamy filling that was studded with cherries and one of two other fruits, this was eye-popping and delicious, but at $9, it was not exactly a bargain, although the portion was large for one person.
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Borodnisky bread, the type with cumin. (There was more than one bofrodinsky and all Ii know is that mine was baked with cumin, although I could not detect the spice on tasting.)
. I had the bread the following day; I sliced the loaf (asked for it not to be sliced in-store) and toasted the slice. This was excellent! And it was the item that Iād expected the least from. I think it was $2.49 and even though the loaf was small, I thought it well worth the price. Supposedly, this type of bread has a lot of health benefits.
Iām around there tomorrow and want to go back and would love to know other items to buy off the buffet bar. Iām going to stay away from the plov, but would like to try manti, any noodles, and especially, and of the savory pastries. But which ones??? Any additional desserts that you all would recommend?? Breads other than the Borodinsky, which I will buy again?
Really welcoming market; seemed very clean, lots of space (almost empty around noon on a weekday) . Staff were helpful and polite. I really want to put this place on my semi-regular food rounds, but to do that, I need to find more things to sampleā¦
Thanks, all!!!
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My favorite things to get there are smoked fish, pot cheese and the big spinach dumplings. I also have my eye on the blintzes, but havenāt tried them yet.
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Thanks!! I hesitated over the blintzes and might try tomorrow. Iām limited in the amount I can carry home so want get ābetterā items tomorrow. The smoked fish would be great for me, but for the other person in the household, itās a no goā¦(as are any items with fish or shellfish)
I will try to find the big spinach dumplingsā¦
The array is pretty amazing and I see from photos that the Brooklyn original is much biggerā¦
Thanks againā¦I know there must be treasures there but I need help in uncovering them!!
I keep staring at the buffet, but everything is a different price, and I donāt feel like taking a single serving of six different things in individual clamshells.
Exactlyā¦thatās what I had to doā¦but they do have a big supply of nice containers which will see much use in my kitchen!! Ii could not figure out how to fit the cake into a round container without squashing, so ended up having to put it in a large clamshell
No Plov lovers? Chicken Plov is my go to in Brooklyn Ave Z Tashkent.
Iām puzzled by your experience with the stuffed breads / pastries. Wondering if it was a freshness issue or an expectations mismatch. The last time I was there, there were 3 or 4 types I had to look up the names of.
You are lucky it was empty, itās usually bursting around mealtimes.
I resist it, because there are so many other things to try.
Thatās my issue too. Too many clamshells if I take a small portion of each thing I want to try. (More knowledgeable people do not have this issue, because they already know and are filling up each clamshell.)
You know, Iām not sure if they had the chicken plov in Manhattan. If you highly recommend, I will look for it tomorrow.
Itās possible the my expectations were too high on the pastries; the only vague comparison would be that kahkavilli I had from that tiny bakery on Neptune Avenue, run by an older Georgian baker who had his oven in the back of the spaceā¦was it called Cafe Tone (??). But the one from Tashkent, really was kind of leadenā¦ The omnivore eating alongside me agreed with me but then, I noticed that he heated up the leftover one THE NEXT NIGHT (so by then, more than 24 hours after I bought it) and finished it off, soā¦
The do have handy plasticky shopping bags for $.35; I guess I can stack a dozen clamshells into a pair of those bags!!
More on the Borodinsky; Iād never heard of this bread before this week. Itās delicious. And I never knew about GOST. And never had heard of a bread named after a battle.
The Chicken Plov is a little simpler than regular Plov. Not as oily and so easier as a full meal. In Brooklyn they serve it as a regular hot item, not in the Plov station. I didnt see it in Manhattan the one time I walked in but it might have been too early.
While living in China, I tended to think that plov was all too monotonous. When I started having it with plain yogurt, it went up a rung.
Then, in Uzbekistan I had what should be the standard:
Havenāt found an analogous superlative yet, but the search is real.
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Maybe the ātiny bakery on Neptuneā was Tone, which is Georgian and really excellent?
Similar items all around central asia however. I doubt a big supermarket is going to offer items as good as a little shop or restaurant which will be making the items fresh.
This is where you get the real plov in NYC:
488 Kings Hwy, Brooklyn, NY 11223
I was pointed to the place by the Uzbeki limo guy. It is a tiny 24 hours spot for Uzbeki/ Tajiki Uber drivers. They serve a bunch of other Middle Asian fare. I spent some time in the region and know the food very well. The plov is very legit! On Sundays they serve plov only.
The costs next to nothing as wellā¦
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You mean Chayhana? It looks good. Thereās a lot of Uzbek all over Brooklyn these days. Best Plov Iāve had so far is at Nargis Cafe, but hate the new location.
