Turkmen food is hearty, meat-heavy, and built around lamb and rice. It shares the broad Central Asian culinary tradition with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, though with its own emphases and flavors.
Plov (rice pilaf with lamb, carrots, and onions, cooked in a large cast-iron kazan) is the staple of every celebration and most daily meals. Turkmen plov tends to be less oily than the Uzbek version. Shorba is a rich lamb broth with vegetables and is eaten at almost any time of day. Manti — steamed dumplings filled with spiced minced lamb — are popular everywhere.
Gutap is a Turkmen specialty worth seeking out: a half-moon pastry pan-fried and filled with meat, spinach, or pumpkin depending on the season. Çörek (chorek) is the traditional flatbread, baked in a tandoor and torn by hand to eat with soup or meat. Fresh bread is taken seriously here.
Lamb kebabs (shashlik) are grilled over charcoal at market stalls and roadside stops. Fish from the Caspian — sturgeon and bream — are found around Turkmenbashi.
To drink, green tea is universal. Çal (chal) is a fermented camel's milk that is cold, mildly sour, and fizzy — an acquired taste that is genuinely refreshing in the heat. Alcohol is available in restaurants and hotels in Ashgabat but is less common outside the capital. Eating at local cafes (stolovaya) rather than hotel restaurants gives better food at a fraction of the price.