Traditional Tajik meals start with sweet dishes such as halwa and tea and then progress to soups and meat before finishing with plov.
National specialities:
• Plov is made up of scraps of mutton, shredded yellow turnip and rice, fried in a large wok, and is a staple dish in all the Central Asian republics.
• Shashlyk (skewered chunks of mutton grilled over charcoal, served with raw sliced onions) and lipioshka (round unleavened bread) are often sold on street corners and served in restaurants: the Vastoychny bar restaurant in Dushanbe (on Prospekt Rudaki near the Hotel Tajikistan) serves particularly good shashlyk.
• Manty (large noodle sacks of meat), samsa (samosas) and chiburekki (deep-fried dough cakes) are all popular as snacks.
• Shorpur is a meat and vegetable soup; laghman is similar to shorpur, but comes with noodles.
• In the summer, Tajikistan is awash with fruit: its grapes and melons were famous throughout the former Soviet Union. The bazaars also sell pomegranates, apricots, plums, figs and persimmons.
• Strogan is the local equivalent of beef Stroganoff.
• Pirmeni, originating in Ukraine, are small boiled noodle sacks of meat and vegetables similar to ravioli, sometimes in a vegetable soup, sometimes not.
National drinks:
• Tea or chai is the most widespread drink on offer and can be obtained almost anywhere.
• Beer, wine, vodka, brandy and sparkling wine (shampanski) are intermittently available in many restaurants. If the restaurant is unable to supply it, it is acceptable to bring your own.
• Kefir, a thick drinking yoghurt, is often served with breakfast.

There are no restaurants operating in the evenings except for the one in the Hotel Oktyabrskaya which shuts at 2200. There is a dollar bar in the basement of the Hotel Tajikistan which is open some evenings. The Ayni opera and ballet theatre on Prospekt Rudaki is still operating, albeit with a reduced programme of matinees. The streets of Dushanbe are usually deserted by 2000.

Shortages are the norm in Tajikistan; there is a bazaar and street market behind the Hotel Tajikistan where it is possible to buy food and sometimes handicrafts. Shokhmansur (also known as Zilyoni) Bazaar near Ploshchad Ayni also sells food. There is a souvenir shop on the corner of Prospekt Rudaki and ulitsa Ismail Somoni, under an art gallery which exhibits and sells the work of local artists. Shopping hours: Food shops open Mon-Sat 0900-1700.