Cooking Sumalak with a Local Family

The preparation of sumalak remains one of the most important and beloved of the captivating traditions of the Navruz celebration. Sumalak is an Uzbek dish made of sprouted wheat, prepared on festive occasions. 
If guests happen to be in Samarkand or Bukhara in spring time (March and April) and want to participate in this activity, the tour staff will organize a day tour on request. Guests you will join a local family in their preparation of sumalak and try stirring the dish themselves. They will also have dinner with members of the family in their house. The tour promises a very memorable experience that would leave sweet memories. 
Preparation for the cooking begins as early as 10 days prior to the celebration. For 4 days, moist wheat is kept in linen bags and frequently watered. After 4 days, the turgid grains are placed on trays and watered every four hours until sprouts appear. The sprouts are then cut, crushed and mixed with flour and oil, placed in a large pan called kazan and cooked for 12-14 hours. At the bottom of kazan, small smooth stones are placed to avoid burning of the mixture. It is believed that it is lucky if to find one of these stones while eating the sumalak. 
It is important to constantly stir the sumalak while cooking. That is why, traditionally, the cooking of sumalak is accompanied by singing, dancing and narration of jokes to entertain the cooks and to lighten their work. The cooking begins during the day and ends in early morning of the next day.  
The result of this long, arduous process, is one of the most nutritious and rich dishes of the Uzbek cuisine.  
There are several legends associated with the advent of sumalak. According to one of them, there lived a widow with children. The family was poor and they often had nothing to eat. One day, the children were so hungry that they could not fall asleep and cried the whole night. The desperate mother did not know what to do, so she poured water into the kazan, placed stones instead of meat and tufts of field grass and stirred this with flour. While she was stirring she fell asleep. In the morning, she woke up and saw angels standing around the pot, tasting her cooking and licking their fingers. The woman woke up her children and they ate the dish with great delight. From that moment on, the family was never hungry and the dish was called sumalak which, it is said, means "angelic water".

The tour staff can also assist guests in organizing accommodation in Samarkand and Bukhara for that period.

- The tour staff will meet guests at their hotel

- Together with the guide, a knowledgeable local, guests will drive to a national house

- At the national house, guests will see how the owners of the house prepare sumalak and join them in the preparation. They will also get an idea about how people entertain each other during cooking and how this festive national dish is prepared in the region. Guests are sure to enjoy the interaction with the local family. 

- Later guests will have dinner, prepared by the family

- After dinner, they will be transferred back to their hotel.