Tajikistan

Syrniki or syrnyky (Ukrainian: сирники, cheese cakes) are fried Eastern Slavic quark (curd cheese) pancakes. They are a part of Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, Latvian (biezpiena plācenīši) and Lithuanian cuisine (varškėčiai). In Russia, they are also known as tvorozhniki (творо́жники). The name syrniki is derived from the Slavic word syr (сир), meaning a soft curd cheese. The Ukrainian language retains the old Slavic sense of the word, as in domashnii syr (домашній сир, literal translation 'domestic cheese'), whereas in Russian another old Slavic word for curd cheese, tvorog (творог), is used. Syrnyky or tvorozhniki are made from creamy tvorog, mixed with flour, eggs and sugar, sometimes adding vanilla extract. Pot cheese or farmer's cheese or quark is suggested as a substitute for the tvorog. The soft mixture is shaped into cakes, which are pan- or shallow-fried in vegetable oil or in hot butter. The consistency should remain slightly creamy, while they are slightly browned on both sides. They are traditionally sweet and served for breakfast or dessert, but can be made savory as well. Raisins, chopped dried apricot, fresh apples or pears are sometimes added into the batter. They are typically served with varenye, jam, smetana (sour cream) and / or melted butter.

An apple pie is a pie in which the principal filling is apples. Apple pie is often served with whipped cream, ice cream , custard or cheddar cheese. It is generally double-crusted, with pastry both above and below the filling; the upper crust may be solid or latticed (woven of crosswise strips). The bottom crust may be baked separately ("blind") to prevent it from getting soggy. Tarte Tatin is baked with the crust on top, but served with it on the bottom. Originating in the 14th century in England, apple pie recipes are now a standard part of cuisines in many countries where apples grow. Apple pies are an unofficial symbol of the United States and one of its signature comfort foods.

Sponge cake

Chak-chak[a] is a popular fried dough food in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. Chak-chak is made from unleavened dough cut and rolled into hazelnut-sized balls, which are then deep-fried in oil. Optionally, hazelnuts or dried fruit (e.g. apricots and raisins) are added to the mixture. The fried balls are stacked in a mound in a special mold and drenched with hot honey. After cooling and hardening, chak-chak may optionally be decorated with hazelnuts and dried fruits. Traditional wedding chak-chak is larger and is often covered with candies and dragées. The biggest chak-chak weighed 4,026.4 kilograms (8,877 lb) and was prepared on 14 June 2018 during start of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Kazan.

Кекс — кондитерское изделие, выпекаемое из масляного бисквитного или дрожжевого теста. Первый рецепт кекса можно найти в Древнем Риме, когда гранат, орехи, изюм смешивались в ячменном пюре. Начиная с XVI века, когда из американских колоний стал поставляться сахар, кексы стали очень популярны (высокая концентрация сахара сохраняла фрукты). Кексы распространились по всей Европе, но рецепты их приготовления многообразны в разных странах и зависят от местных ингредиентов.

An éclair is a pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with a flavored icing. The dough, which is the same as that used for profiterole, is typically piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside. Once cool, the pastry is filled with custard (crème pâtissière), whipped cream or chiboust cream, then iced with fondant icing. Other fillings include pistachio- and rum-flavoured custard, fruit-flavoured fillings, or chestnut purée. The icing is sometimes caramel, in which case the dessert may be called a bâton de Jacob (lit. 'Jacob's staff'). A similar pastry in a round rather than oblong shape is called a religieuse. The word comes from the French éclair, meaning 'flash of lightning', so named because it is eaten quickly (in a flash); however some believe that the name is due to the glistening of the frosting resembling lightning. The éclair originated during the 19th century in Lyon, France where it was called pain à la Duchesse ('Duchess-style bread') or petite duchesse ('little duchess') until 1850. The word is first attested both in English and in French in the 1860s.

Halva is a type of confectionery that is widely spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa, the Balkans, Central Asia, and South Asia. The name is used for a broad variety of recipes, generally a thick paste made from flour, butter, liquid oil, saffron, rosewater, milk, turmeric powder, and sweetened with sugar. The word halva entered the English language between 1840 and 1850 from Romanian, which came from Ottoman Turkish: حلوى, romanized: helva, itself ultimately derived from Arabic: حلوى, romanized: ḥalwā, a sweet confection. The root in Arabic: ح ل و, romanized: ḥ-l-w, means "sweet". The original name for the confection was Persian: روغن خورديگ, romanized: rōɣn khordīg, meaning "oil food".

A dessert made with mutton fat, flour and sugar

Angel wings are a traditional sweet crisp pastry made out of dough that has been shaped into thin twisted ribbons, deep-fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Common to many European cuisines, angel wings have been incorporated into other regional cuisines by immigrant populations. They are most commonly eaten in the period just before Lent, often during Carnival and on Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Lent—not to be confused with "Fat Tuesday" (Mardi Gras), the day before the start of Lent (Ash Wednesday). There is a tradition in some countries for husbands to give angel wings to their wives on Friday the 13th in order to avoid bad luck. In the various national cuisines, angel wings are referred to as:

Medovik is a layer cake popular in countries of the former Soviet Union. The identifying ingredients are honey and smetana (sour cream) or condensed milk. The dessert, famous for its lengthy preparation time, consists of layers of sponge cake with a cream filling and is often covered with nuts or crumbs made from leftover cake. While the thin layers harden shortly after coming out of the oven, the moisture of the filling softens it again over time. There are many recipes and variations of this cake, but the main ingredient is honey, giving it its characteristic taste and flavor. According to Russian tradition, the cake was created in the 19th century in the Russian Empire by a young chef who sought to impress Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna, wife of Alexander I. Empress Elizabeth could not stand honey and any dish made with it. One day a young new confectioner in the imperial kitchen, unaware of the empress's dislike, baked a new cake with honey and thick sour cream. Surprisingly, and unaware of the honey content, Empress Elizabeth immediately fell in love with it. Despite this legend, medovik is not mentioned in any of the 19th-century Russian cookbooks. The first recipe for medovik is found in the 1957 and 1960 book "Ukrainian Dishes" published in Ukrainian in Kyiv. Medovik gained its intense popularity during the Soviet era. Today, there are numerous variations of medovik: with condensed milk, buttercream or custard.

An anthill-shaped cake made with small dough balls mixed with sour cream, caramel, nuts, poppy seeds, chocolate many variations

A mille-feuille ,[notes 1] also known by the names Napoleon in North America, vanilla slice in the United Kingdom, and custard slice, is a French dessert made of puff pastry layered with pastry cream. Its modern form was influenced by improvements made by Marie-Antoine Carême. Traditionally, a mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff pastry (pâte feuilletée), alternating with two layers of pastry cream (crème pâtissière). The top pastry layer is finished in various ways: sometimes it is topped with whipped cream, or it may be dusted with icing sugar, cocoa, pastry crumbs, or sliced almonds. It may also be glazed with icing or fondant alone, or in alternating white (icing) and brown (chocolate) or other colored icing stripes, and combed to create a marbled effect.

Walnut-shaped cookies filled with caramel, chocolate, nuts

Cookies

Pączki are filled doughnuts found in Polish cuisine. A pączek is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened ball and filled with confiture or other sweet filling. Pączki are usually covered with powdered sugar, icing, glaze, or bits of dried orange zest. A small amount of grain alcohol (traditionally rectified spirit) is added to the dough before cooking; as it evaporates, it prevents the absorption of oil deep into the dough. Pączki are commonly thought of as fluffy but somewhat collapsed, with a bright stripe around them; these features are seen as evidence that the dough was fried in fresh oil.

Varenye is a popular whole-fruit preserve, widespread in Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus), as well as the Baltic region (Lithuanian: uogienė [uə̯ˈɡʲiə̯nʲeː], Latvian: ievārījums, Estonian: moos). It is made by cooking berries, other fruits, or more rarely nuts, vegetables, or flowers, in sugar syrup. In some traditional recipes, other sweeteners such as honey or treacle are used instead of or in addition to sugar. Varenye is similar to jam except the fruits are not macerated, and no gelling agent is added. It is characterized by a thick but transparent syrup having the natural colour of the fruits. Varenye is an old Slavic word which is used in East Slavic languages in a more general sense to refer to any type of sweet fruit preserve. The word has common etymological roots with the verbs denoting cooking, boiling, brewing, or stewing (Russian: варить, Belarusian: варыць, Ukrainian: варити).

Zefir is a type of soft confectionery made by whipping fruit and berry purée (mostly apple puree) with sugar and egg whites with subsequent addition of a gelling agent like pectin, carrageenan, agar, or gelatine. It is produced in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The name given after the Greek god of the light west wind Zephyr symbolizes its delicate airy consistency. Zefir is derived from the traditional Russian pastila confectionery, but with added egg white foam and a gelling agent. An addition of unwhipped egg whites to the recipe originated in the town of Kolomna sometime during the 15th century, and in the 19th century the zefir dessert most likely emerged in its modern form with whipped egg whites due to a French adaptation on the recipe that was later brought back to Russia. The form typically resembles traditional meringue. However, in contrast to commercial-grade meringue, zefir is never crispy. In contrast to most chocolate-coated marshmallow-like confectioneries, zefirs normally come without layers of cookies/biscuits included.

Green tea is a type of tea made from the leaves and buds of the Camellia sinensis that have not undergone the withering and oxidation process that creates oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China in the late 1st millennium BC, and since then its production and manufacture has spread to other countries in East Asia. Several varieties of green tea exist, which differ substantially based on the variety of C. sinensis used, growing conditions, horticultural methods, production processing, and time of harvest. Tea consumption has its legendary origins in China during the reign of mythological Emperor Shennong.

Kompot or compot, as prepared in Central and Eastern Europe and West Asia, refers to boiled fruits served either as a drink or a dessert depending on the region. When served as a dessert, it is essentially identical to the French compote, which is where the term "kompot" originates from. When served as a drink, it is also known as vzvar (взвар) or uzvar (узвар), from a Slavic root word meaning "to boil". As a drink, kompot is a sweet, non-alcoholic beverage that may be served hot or cold, depending on tradition and season. It is created by cooking fruit such as strawberries, apricots, peaches, apples, raspberries, rhubarb, plums, or sour cherries in a large volume of water, often together with sugar, honey, or raisins as additional sweeteners. Sometimes different spices, such as vanilla or cinnamon, are added for additional flavour, especially in the winter, when kompot is usually served hot. Kompot is popular in Central and Eastern European countries, as well as in Southern Europe.[citation needed] Kompot is part of the cuisine of many countries in Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe, as well as in the Middle East and West Asia. It is known by a variety of names in these countries, such as компот (kompot) in Russian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian, kompót in Slovak and Hungarian, kompotas in Lithuanian, κομπόστα (kompósta) in Greek, and komposto in Turkish. Making kompot was a common way of preserving fruit for the winter in Southern and Eastern European countries; in 1885, Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa wrote in a recipe book that kompot "preserved fruit so well it seemed fresh". Kompot is also popular in many Central Asian countries, such as Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Kvass is a fermented, cereal-based, low-alcoholic beverage of cloudy appearance and sweet-sour taste. Kvass originates from northeastern Europe, where grain production was considered insufficient for beer to become a daily drink. The first written mention of kvass is found in Primary Chronicle, describing the celebration of Vladimir the Great's baptism in 988.

Sesame seeds, roasted, candy, cookies, added to stews and flatbread

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and northern Myanmar. Tea is also made, but rarely, from the leaves of Camellia taliensis. After plain water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world. There are many different types of tea; some have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy notes. Tea has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the third century AD, in a medical text written by Chinese physician Hua Tuo. It was popularised as a recreational drink during the Chinese Tang dynasty, and tea drinking subsequently spread to other East Asian countries. Portuguese priests and merchants introduced it to Europe during the 16th century. During the 17th century, drinking tea became fashionable among the English, who started to plant tea on a large scale in British India.

A spicy cold soup made with noodles, eggs, vegetables, spices

Peremech is an individual-sized fried dough pastry common for Volga Tatar and Bashkir cuisines. It is made from unleavened or leavened dough and usually filled with ground meat and chopped onion. Originally, finely chopped pre-cooked meat was used as a filling, but later raw ground meat became more common. Alternatively, peremech can be filled with potato or quark. Peremech is usually shaped into a flattened sphere with a circular "window" in the middle. In contrast to doughnuts, the hole does not go all the way through, but is only made at the top, such that the filling is visible in the middle. The shape is thus somewhat similar to Russian vatrushka. However, dough neatly kneaded around the hole gives the classical peremech its distinctive shape. Peremech is traditionally served with broth, qatiq (yogurt) or ayran.

Beshbarmak is a dish in Central Asian cuisine. It is also known as naryn in Xinjiang, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, as turama in Karakalpakstan and North Caucasus, as dograma in Turkmenistan, as kullama in Bashkortostan and Tatarstan. It is one of the main national dishes of both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The term beshbarmak means "five fingers" because nomads traditionally eat this dish with their hands. Another name for beshbarmak in Kyrgyz is tuuralgan et, which means crumbled/chopped meat. Beshbarmak is usually made from finely chopped boiled meat, mixed with dough (typically egg noodles) and chyk, an onion sauce. It is typically served on large communal platters, shared between several people, after shorpo, which is a first course of mutton broth served in bowls called kese. It is also followed by a broth called ak-serke (shorpo mixed with kymyz or ayran), which is thought to help with settling the stomach. Festive beshbarmak can be cooked together with Qazı and chuchuk. The cuisine of Central Asia developed within the constraints of a nomadic life, when people were completely reliant on their animals. This is reflected in Central Asian dishes, which are rich in meat and dairy products.

Chicken tabaka or chicken tapaka (Georgian: წიწილა ტაფაკა tsitsila tapaka) is a traditional Georgian dish of a pan-fried chicken which is also popular in other Caucasian cuisines. It also became a common restaurant dish in the Soviet cuisine and is found nowadays in many restaurants throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The chicken is fried in a traditional frying pan called tapa (Georgian: ტაფა). For frying thoroughly, the chicken is flattened out on the pan and pressed by a weight. In modern cookery, special pan sets with a heavy cover or with a screw press are often used. Chicken tabaka is often seasoned with garlic or dressed with traditional Georgian sauces, such as bazhe, satsivi or tkemali.

Chorba [a] or shorba (/ˈʃɔːrbə/ SHOR-bə; Azerbaijani: [ʃoɾˈbɑ])[b] is a broad class of stews or rich soups found in national cuisines across the Middle East, Maghreb, Iran, Turkey, Southeast Europe, Central Asia, East Africa and South Asia. It is often prepared with added ingredients but is also served alone as a broth or with bread. The word chorba in English and in many Balkan languages is a loan from the Ottoman Turkish چوربا çorba, which itself is a loan from Persian شوربا šōrbā. The spelling shorba could be a direct loan into English from Persian or through a Central or South Asian intermediary. The word is ultimately a compound of شور šōr meaning 'salty, brackish' and با bā meaning 'stew, gruel, spoon-meat'. The former is from Parthian ??? šōr meaning 'salty', and the latter from Middle Persian *-bāg meaning 'gruel, spoon-meat'.

Mung bean noodles with beef, chicken, shrimp, julienned vegetables, oil and vinegar

Large steamed rolled dumpling filled with meat, vegetable, potatoes, pumpkin

Kebab , kebap, (North American) kabob, kebob, or (Kashmiri) kabab,[a] is a variety of roasted meat dishes that originated in the Middle East.

Laghman is a dish of meat, vegetables and pulled noodles from Uyghur cuisine and Central Asian cuisine. In Chinese, the noodle is known as latiaozi (Chinese: 拉条子) or bànmiàn (Chinese: 拌面). As native Turkic words do not begin with the letter 'L', läghmän is a loanword from the Chinese lamian and appears to be an adaptation of Northern Chinese noodle dishes, although its taste and preparation are distinctly Uyghur. It is also a traditional dish of the Hui or Dungan people who call the dish bànmiàn. It is especially popular in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where it is considered a national dish of the local Uyghur and Dungan (Hui) ethnic minorities. It is also popular in Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, northeastern Afghanistan (where chickpeas are added), and parts of northern Pakistan. The Crimean Tatar cuisine also adopted lagman from the Uzbek culture.

Manti is a type of dumpling mainly found in Turkish cuisine, Armenian cuisine and Central Asian cuisine but also in West Asia, South Caucasus, and the Balkans. Manti is also popular among Chinese Muslims, and it is consumed throughout post-Soviet countries, where the dish spread from the Central Asian republics. The dumplings typically consist of a spiced meat mixture, usually lamb or ground beef, wrapped in a thin dough sheet which is then boiled or steamed. The size and shape of manti vary significantly depending on geographic location. Manti resemble the Chinese jiaozi and baozi, Korean mandu, Mongolian buuz and the Tibetan momo. The dish's name is cognate with Chinese mantou, Korean mandu, and Japanese manjū, though the modern Chinese and Japanese counterparts mostly refer to different dishes. The name, depending on the language, can refer to a single dumpling or to more than one dumpling at a time; in English, it is often used as both a singular and plural form.

Soup made with rice, meat, potatoes, vegetables

Naryn, neryn or norin is a Central Asian dish with horse meat and different kinds of noodles. In Kyrgyz cuisine, naryn is made of finely chopped lamb meat (or horse meat) with onion sauce. Naryn with the addition of noodles is now called beshbarmak. In Uzbek cuisine, naryn is a pasta dish made with fresh hand-rolled noodles and horse meat. Naryn can be served as a cold pasta dish (kuruk norin, or "dry" norin) or as a hot noodle soup (khul norin, or "wet" norin). Homemade pasta is rolled very thinly and cut into strips 2–4 mm wide and 50–70 mm long. The noodles are cooked in plain boiling water or often in a broth of horse meat. Horse meat is then shredded into the pasta. Naryn might be served on a lagan (plate) decorated with slices of horse meat sausage (Qazı). The dish is served as a part of any extended meal after the samosa and before the plov (osh).

Pirog is a baked case of dough with either sweet or savory filling. The dish is common in Eastern European cuisines. The name is derived from the ancient Proto-Slavic word pir, meaning "banquet" or "festivity". The Russian plural, pirogi (with the stress on the last syllable), should not be confused with pierogi (stress on "ro" in Polish and English) in Polish cuisine, which are dumplings similar to Russian pelmeni or Ukrainian varenyky. Pirogi come in different shapes and forms: they are often oblong with tapering ends, but can also be circular or rectangular. They can be closed or open-faced with no crust on top.

Pirozhki[a] (lit. Smallpie) are Eastern European baked or fried yeast-leavened boat-shaped buns with a variety of fillings. Pirozhki are a popular street food and comfort food in Eastern Europe. The stress in pirozhki is on the last syllable: [pʲɪrɐʂˈkʲi]. Pirozhok[b] (Russian: пирожо́к, romanized: pirožók, IPA: [pʲɪrɐˈʐok] ⓘ, singular) is the diminutive form of Russian pirog, which means a full-sized pie.[c] Pirozhki are not to be confused with the Polish pierogi (a cognate term), which are called varenyky or pyrohy in Ukrainian and Doukhoborese, and vareniki in Russian.

Pilaf , pilav or pilau ( UK: /ˈpiːlaʊ, piːˈlaʊ/) is a rice dish, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat,[note 1][note 2] and employing some technique for achieving cooked grains that do not adhere.[note 3][note 4] At the time of the Abbasid Caliphate, such methods of cooking rice at first spread through a vast territory from South Asia to Spain, and eventually to a wider world. The Spanish paella,[note 5] and the South Asian pilau or pulao,[note 6] and biryani,[note 7] evolved from such dishes.

Qurutob (Tajik: Қурутоб) is a dish of Tajik cuisine. Sometimes described as a "bread salad", it is created using qurut, dried balls of cheese, which are soaked in water; the resulting liquid, salty in flavor, is used as the base of the dish. Strips of fatir, a type of flatbread, are then placed on top. The mixture is served on large plates, and is usually topped with a variety of vegetables, such as onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, or herbs; meat or chili peppers are also sometimes seen as garnishes. Qurutob is a shared dish, meant to be eaten with the hands. Qurutob is the national dish of Tajikistan.

A samosa (listenⓘ) ( Persian: سمبوسه) from the Persian word sambosag (سنبوسگ) (meaning 'triangular pastry') is a fried South Asian and West Asian snack. It is a pastry with a savory filling, mostly vegetables, spiced potatoes, onions, and peas, but also meat or fish. It is made in different shapes, including triangular, cone, or crescent, depending on the region. Samosas are often accompanied by chutney, and have origins in medieval times or earlier. Sweet versions are also made. Samosas are a popular entrée, appetizer, or snack in the cuisines of India, South Asia, West Asia, Central Asia, Portugal, East Africa and their South Asian diasporas. The English word samosa derives from the Hindustani word samosa (Urdu: سموسہ, Hindi: समोसा), traceable to the Middle Persian word sanbosag (سنبوسگ) 'triangular pastry'. Similar pastries are called sambusak in Arabic from Persian; medieval Arabic recipe books sometimes spell it sambusaj, which are all borrowed from Persian sanbosag.

Shashlik, or shashlyck , is a dish of skewered and grilled cubes of meat, similar to or synonymous with shish kebab. It is known traditionally by various other names in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and from the 19th century became popular as shashlik across much of the Russian Empire and nowadays in former Soviet Union republics. The word shashlik or shashlick entered English from the Russian shashlyk, of Turkic origin. In Turkic languages, the word shish means skewer, and shishlik is literally translated as "skewerable". The word was coined from the Crimean Tatar: şış ('spit') by the Zaporozhian Cossacks and entered Russian in the 18th century, from there spreading to English and other European languages. Prior to that, the Russian name for meat cooked on a skewer was verchenoye, from vertel, 'spit'. Shashlik did not reach Moscow until the late 19th century. From then on, its popularity spread rapidly; by the 1910s it was a staple in St Petersburg restaurants and by the 1920s it was already a pervasive street food all over urban Russia. Shashlik was originally made of lamb, but nowadays it is also made of pork, beef, chicken or venison, depending on local preferences and religious observances. The skewers are either threaded with meat only, or with alternating pieces of meat, fat, and vegetables, such as bell pepper, onion, mushroom and tomato. In Iranian cuisine, meat for shashlik (as opposed to other forms of shish kebab) is usually in large chunks, while elsewhere the form of medium-size meat cubes is maintained making it similar to brochette. The meat is marinated overnight in a high-acidity marinade like vinegar, dry wine or sour fruit/vegetable juice with the addition of onions, herbs and spices.[better source needed]

An apricot is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus Prunus. Usually an apricot is from the species P. armeniaca, but the fruits of the other species in Prunus sect. Armeniaca are also called apricots. In 2022, world production of apricots was 3.9 million tonnes, led by Turkey with 21% of the total.

A Caesar salad is a green salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with lemon juice (or lime juice), olive oil, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, anchovies, garlic, Dijon mustard, Parmesan and black pepper. The salad was created on July 4, 1924, by Caesar Cardini at Caesar's in Tijuana, Mexico, when the kitchen was overwhelmed and short on ingredients. It was originally prepared tableside, and it is still prepared tableside at the original venue.

Dried fruit is fruit from which the majority of the original water content has been removed prior to cooking or being eaten on its own. Drying may occur either naturally, by sun, through the use of industrial dehydrators, or by freeze drying. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia, and is valued for its sweet taste, nutritional content, and long shelf life. In the 21st century, dried fruit consumption is widespread worldwide. Nearly half of dried fruits sold are raisins, followed by dates, prunes, figs, apricots, peaches, apples, and pears. These are referred to as "conventional" or "traditional" dried fruits: fruits that have been dried in the sun or in commercial dryers. Many fruits, such as cranberries, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and mango are infused with a sweetener prior to drying. Some products sold as dried fruit, like papaya, kiwifruit and pineapple, are most often candied fruit. Traditional dried fruits such as raisins, figs, dates, apricots, and apples have been a staple of Mediterranean diets for millennia. This is due partly to their early cultivation in the Middle Eastern region known as the Fertile Crescent, made up of parts of modern Iran, Iraq, southwest Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and northern Egypt. Drying or dehydration was the earliest form of food preservation: figs, dates or grapes which fell from the plant and were sun-dried may have been consumed by early hunter-gatherers as edible and more long-lasting and sweeter.

Apples, apricots, berries, figs, grapes, melons, peaches, pears, persimmons, plums, pomegranates, quinces

Cabbage rolls, filled with minced meat, vegetables, rice and spices

Haydari is a type of yogurt dish similar to a thick cacık, made from certain herbs and spices, combined with garlic and yogurt. It differs from cacık in that the recipe contains no cucumber and calls for strained yogurt or labne. It is served purely as a meze, being more pungently appetizing - by virtue of being saltier, more acidic and of a thicker consistency - than cacık.

Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of Brassica oleracea, is a leafy green, red , or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage (B. oleracea var. oleracea), and belongs to the "cole crops" or brassicas, meaning it is closely related to broccoli and cauliflower (var. botrytis); Brussels sprouts (var. gemmifera); and Savoy cabbage (var. sabauda). A cabbage generally weighs between 500 and 1,000 grams (1 and 2 lb). Smooth-leafed, firm-headed green cabbages are the most common, with smooth-leafed purple cabbages and crinkle-leafed savoy cabbages of both colours being rarer. Under conditions of long sunny days, such as those found at high northern latitudes in summer, cabbages can grow quite large. As of 2012[update], the heaviest cabbage was 62.71 kilograms (138 lb 4 oz). Cabbage heads are generally picked during the first year of the plant's life cycle, but plants intended for seed are allowed to grow a second year and must be kept separate from other cole crops to prevent cross-pollination. Cabbage is prone to several nutrient deficiencies, as well as to multiple pests, and bacterial and fungal diseases.

Kashk , (Sorani Kurdish: کەشک) qurut (Tuvan and Kyrgyz: курут, Kazakh: құрт, Turkmen: gurt, Uzbek: qurut, Azerbaijani: qurut, Tajik: қурут, Pashto: قروت, Turkish: kurut), chortan (Armenian: չորթան chort’an), or aaruul and khuruud (Mongolian: ааруул or хурууд) is a range of dairy products popular in Iranian cuisine, Caucasian cuisine, and Central Asian cuisine. Kashk is made from strained yogurt, drained buttermilk (in particular, drained qatiq) or drained sour milk by shaping it and letting it dry. It can be made in a variety of forms, like rolled into balls, sliced into strips, and formed into chunks. There are three main kinds of food products with this name: foods based on curdled milk products like yogurt or cheese; foods based on barley broth, bread, or flour; and foods based on cereals combined with curdled milk.

Horse meat sausage

Khachapuri is a traditional Georgian dish of cheese-filled bread. The bread is leavened and allowed to rise, molded into various shapes, and then filled in the center with a mixture of cheese (fresh or aged, most commonly, specialized khachapuri cheese), and sometimes eggs or other ingredients. It is popular in Georgia, both in restaurants and as street food. As a Georgian staple food, the price of making khachapuri is used as a measure of inflation in different Georgian cities by the "khachapuri index", developed by the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University. It is Georgia's national dish, included in the list of the intangible cultural heritage of Georgia. On the behalf and initiative of the Gastronomic Association of Georgia, the 27th of February was announced as National Khachapuri Day, to celebrate Georgia's signature pastry as well as to promote its recognition internationally. The khachapuri is served hot from the oven, otherwise it loses the taste of its unique cheese mixture and becomes bitter. Specialists are divided regarding the chronology of khachapuri. According to Darra Goldstein, who wrote the book The Georgian Feast about the dish, khachapuri probably dates back to the 12th century when Georgia experienced a period of renaissance, but its specific root remains unclear. Dali Tsatava, former professor at the Georgian Culinary Academy, suggested that khachapuri could be a "cousin of the pizza" as the concept of the dish might have been brought by Roman soldiers who crossed Europe, well before the addition of tomatoes in the 16th century.

Aspic or meat jelly is a savoury gelatin made with a meat stock or broth, set in a mold to encase other ingredients. These often include pieces of meat, seafood, vegetable, or eggs. Aspic is also sometimes referred to as aspic gelée or aspic jelly. In its simplest form, aspic is essentially a gelatinous version of conventional soup. According to one poetic reference by Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi, who described a version of a dish prepared with Iraqi carp, it was "like ruby on the platter, set in a pearl ... steeped in saffron thus, like garnet it looks, vibrantly red, shimmering on silver". Historically, meat aspics were made even before fruit- and vegetable-flavoured aspics. By the Middle Ages, cooks had discovered that a thickened meat broth could be made into a jelly. A detailed recipe for aspic is found in Le Viandier, written in or around 1375.

Naan is an Indian leavened, oven-baked or tawa-fried flatbread, that can also be baked in a tandoor. It is characterized by a light and fluffy texture and golden-brown spots from the baking process. Naan is found in the cuisines of Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. Composed of white or wheat flour and combined with a leavening agent, typically yeast, naan dough develops air pockets that contribute to its fluffy and soft texture. Additional ingredients for crafting naan include warm water, salt, ghee and yogurt, with optional additions like milk, egg, or honey. Baking powder or baking soda can be used instead of yeast to reduce the preparation time for the bread.

A nut is a fruit consisting of a hard or tough nutshell protecting a kernel which is usually edible. In general usage and in a culinary sense, many dry seeds are called nuts, but in a botanical context, "nut" implies that the shell does not open to release the seed . Most seeds come from fruits that naturally free themselves from the shell, but this is not the case in nuts such as hazelnuts, chestnuts, and acorns, which have hard shell walls and originate from a compound ovary. A seed is the mature fertilised ovule of a plant; it consists of three parts, the embryo which will develop into a new plant, stored food for the embryo, and a protective seed coat. Botanically, a nut is a fruit with a woody pericarp developing from a syncarpous gynoecium. Nuts may be contained in an involucre, a cup-shaped structure formed from the flower bracts. The involucre may be scaly, spiny, leafy or tubular, depending on the species of nut. Most nuts come from the pistils with inferior ovaries (see flower) and all are indehiscent (not opening at maturity). True nuts are produced, for example, by some plant families of the order Fagales. These include beech (Fagus), chestnut (Castanea), oak (Quercus), stone-oak (Lithocarpus) and tanoak (Notholithocarpus) in the family Fagaceae, as well as hazel, filbert (Corylus) and hornbeam (Carpinus) in the family Betulaceae.

Olivier salad is a traditional salad dish of Russian cuisine. Its creation is generally attributed to Lucien Olivier. It is popular in the post-Soviet states and around the world. In different modern recipes, it is usually made with diced boiled potatoes, carrots and brined dill pickles (or cucumber), together with optional eggs, vegetable or fruit ingredients such as green peas, celeriac, onions and apples, optional meat ingredients such as diced boiled chicken, cured sausage, ham, or hot dogs, with salt, pepper and mustard sometimes added to enhance flavor, and dressed with mayonnaise. In Russia and other post-Soviet states, as well as in Russophone communities worldwide, the salad has become one of the main dishes on zakuski tables served during New Year's Eve ("Novy God") celebrations. In Poland it is commonly served at Christmas and Easter.

Kashk , (Sorani Kurdish: کەشک) qurut (Tuvan and Kyrgyz: курут, Kazakh: құрт, Turkmen: gurt, Uzbek: qurut, Azerbaijani: qurut, Tajik: қурут, Pashto: قروت, Turkish: kurut), chortan (Armenian: չորթան chort’an), or aaruul and khuruud (Mongolian: ааруул or хурууд) is a range of dairy products popular in Iranian cuisine, Caucasian cuisine, and Central Asian cuisine. Kashk is made from strained yogurt, drained buttermilk (in particular, drained qatiq) or drained sour milk by shaping it and letting it dry. It can be made in a variety of forms, like rolled into balls, sliced into strips, and formed into chunks. There are three main kinds of food products with this name: foods based on curdled milk products like yogurt or cheese; foods based on barley broth, bread, or flour; and foods based on cereals combined with curdled milk.

Syrniki or syrnyky (Ukrainian: сирники, cheese cakes) are fried Eastern Slavic quark (curd cheese) pancakes. They are a part of Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, Latvian (biezpiena plācenīši) and Lithuanian cuisine (varškėčiai). In Russia, they are also known as tvorozhniki (творо́жники). The name syrniki is derived from the Slavic word syr (сир), meaning a soft curd cheese. The Ukrainian language retains the old Slavic sense of the word, as in domashnii syr (домашній сир, literal translation 'domestic cheese'), whereas in Russian another old Slavic word for curd cheese, tvorog (творог), is used. Syrnyky or tvorozhniki are made from creamy tvorog, mixed with flour, eggs and sugar, sometimes adding vanilla extract. Pot cheese or farmer's cheese or quark is suggested as a substitute for the tvorog. The soft mixture is shaped into cakes, which are pan- or shallow-fried in vegetable oil or in hot butter. The consistency should remain slightly creamy, while they are slightly browned on both sides. They are traditionally sweet and served for breakfast or dessert, but can be made savory as well. Raisins, chopped dried apricot, fresh apples or pears are sometimes added into the batter. They are typically served with varenye, jam, smetana (sour cream) and / or melted butter.