The national dish of Uzbekistan is plov.   Uzbekis are extremely and inexplicably proud of plov.  They shouldn’t be.  It is as stodgy as the name suggests.

Every region has its own variation, but essentially it consists of rice cooked in mutton fat, with bits of fatty mutton on top or mixed through it.  Sometimes a few vegetables also.  Sheep have been specifically bred to have extra fatty tails and the fat back end of the sheep is the prized cut for plov.

Traditionally, the best cuts of mutton are put in the plov on Thursdays and it is claimed that more Uzbeki babies are conceived on Thursday than any other day.  Plov is considered to increase a man’s virility.  Increasing the waist line seems more likely.

Drinking the liquid mutton fat from the bottom of the cooking dish is said to be an aphrodisiac.  It’s not.

When (not if) you get sick of plov, you can always try the local specialty of Bukhara, beef jiz.

The joke possibilities are endless.  Unfortunately, none of them can be printed.