Uzbekistan's UNESCO Silk Road open-air museum — Itchan Kala's mud-brick walled inner city, Khorezmian cuisine that the rest of Central Asia has forgotten how to cook, with shivit oshi green-noodle soup as the city's distinctive signature.
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Khiva dines as the Silk Road's preserved inner-city. The Khorezm Province city — population 95,000, Uzbekistan's most-preserved medieval city — has its inner walled fortress (Itchan Kala) inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1990 as a complete Silk Road urban environment with original mud-brick walls, working madrasahs, the iconic Kalta Minor Minaret (the unfinished 14th-century blue-tiled minaret that's the city's marquee visual symbol), and the Tash-Hauli royal palace. The cuisine is distinctively Khorezmian — the regional style of north-west Uzbekistan — and differs from the more commonly-known Uzbek dishes (Tashkent-or-Samarkand plov, manti) in significant ways: shivit oshi (the green-dyed dill-noodle soup that's the city's most-distinctive single signature), Khorezmian Pilaf (different from other Uzbek pilafs in technique and ingredients), tukhum barak (eggs-in-dumplings), and a deeper tradition of seasonal-vegetable accompaniments.
The dining map is small and walkable. Itchan Kala — the UNESCO walled inner-city — holds the iconic restaurants: Khorezm Art Restaurant (in the converted Allakuli Khan Madrasah), Mirzaboshi Restaurant (near the Kalta Minor Minaret), Terrassa Cafe & Restaurant (the rooftop with city views), and a dozen smaller traditional kitchens within the historical-monument buildings. Outside the walls (Dichan Kala, the outer city) hold the more contemporary cafes and a few modern Uzbek restaurants.
Reservations are not standard culture in Khiva and most restaurants are walk-in only; the city's small size means evening dining is relatively quiet. English menus are universal at the tourist-tier restaurants. The proper Khiva visit is one to two days — most visitors arrive from Bukhara or Samarkand, eat lunch and dinner inside Itchan Kala, and depart the next morning.
Pair the food with one of the local Khorezm-region green teas (the Khorezm Province produces a particular variety of black-and-green tea blend that's served sweetened with rock-sugar) or with the Uzbek-style Sherbet drinks. Most full meals end with a plate of the regional Khorezm dried fruits and nuts — apricots, walnuts, almonds, raisins — and a cup of the famous Khiva-region halva. The proper post-dinner anchor is a walk along the Itchan Kala ramparts at sunset (the original mud-brick walls remain intact and are accessible from several tower-mounted stairways).
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