Quick answer: The dishes to try in Turkmenistan are palaw (plov), chorek bread from the tamdyr oven, ichlekli and fitchi meat pies, somsa, gutap, manty, dograma, shurpa, shashlyk, unash, ýarma, pishme, govurdak and the summer melons, with green tea at every meal. The best places to find them are the bazaars of Ashgabat and Dashoguz, roadside bakeries, desert camp dinners and Turkmen homes.
Last updated: October 22, 2026
Cover photo: A vegetable stall with melons and watermelons behind it in the fruit hall of Altyn Asyr Bazaar, Ashgabat. Hans Birger Nilsen / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
The first thing you'll be handed in Turkmenistan is usually bread. It arrives before the tea has finished brewing, a round chorek still warm from the oven, and someone tears it and passes the pieces around. If you put your piece down upside down, a person at the table will quietly turn it over for you. Bread is treated with that much respect here.
Turkmen food comes out of a herding and oasis-farming past. Mutton is the main meat, seasoning is mostly salt and black pepper, and the cooking fat is often cottonseed oil. It's filling food made for long days outdoors. You won't find many sauces or spices, but you will find a lot of dough, a lot of lamb, and fruit good enough that the country gives its melons a public holiday.
This guide covers fifteen dishes and, more usefully, where you're likely to meet each one on a trip. For background on the cuisine itself, see our Turkmen cuisine page.
Bread and baked things
1. Chorek
Chorek is the everyday flatbread, slapped onto the inside wall of a clay tamdyr oven and peeled off when it's blistered and brown. Every bazaar has a bread row, and many villages still have a shared oven. In Dashoguz you can watch it being made at the Bai Bazaar early in the morning.
Round chorek and triangular somsa baking on the wall of a tamdyr clay oven. Photo: Kalpak Travel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
2. Ichlekli
Ichlekli is a large pie of minced mutton and onion sealed between two layers of dough. Shepherds traditionally baked it in hot sand or embers, and it's still a dish that turns up when there's a fire going. Ask for it at a desert camp or a family meal.
3. Fitchi
Fitchi is close kin to ichlekli: a round meat pie, baked in the oven and cut into wedges. You'll find it in bakeries and on restaurant menus, and it travels well on a long drive.
4. Somsa
Turkmen somsa is a baked pastry filled with meat and onion, sold hot at bazaar stalls and roadside stands. On a day of driving across the Karakum it's the most likely lunch you'll grab through a car window.
A Turkmen somsa, the baked meat pastry sold at bazaars and roadside stalls. Photo: Bayram A / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
5. Gutap
Gutap are thin, half-moon pastries folded over a filling and cooked on a griddle. Spinach and greens are the classic filling, though you'll also see meat and pumpkin. They're a home and bazaar food more than a restaurant one.
6. Pishme
Pishme are small pieces of sweet fried dough, offered to guests with tea and made in quantity for holidays. In desert villages you might see a pot of dough frying over an open fire.
Traditional fried bread served in Erbent, a village in the Karakum Desert north of Ashgabat. Photo: Rastapopulous / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Meat, rice and dumplings
7. Palaw
Palaw (plov) is the dish for celebrations: rice cooked with lamb, carrots and onion in a big kazan. At weddings and festivals it's often eaten with the hands from a shared plate. Most restaurants serve it every day, and the plov you get in a Turkmen home is the one people remember.
A plate of Turkmen palaw: rice, carrots and lamb. Photo: Ovadan Permanova / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
8. Manty
Manty are large steamed dumplings, filled with meat and onion or with pumpkin. They're usually served with yoghurt and are a common lunch in cafés across the country.
9. Shashlyk
Shashlyk, called çişlik in Turkmen, is meat grilled on skewers over charcoal and served with raw onion and a splash of vinegar. It's the standard dinner at a Darvaza camp, cooked on a grill a short walk from the crater. On the Caspian coast you may be offered sturgeon kebab instead.
Sturgeon kebab on a charcoal grill, photographed on the Caspian coast of Turkmenistan. Photo: flydime / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
10. Govurdak
Govurdak is mutton fried slowly in its own fat with onion until it's dark and tender. It's traditionally a winter dish, and a hearty main course in home kitchens.
11. Dograma
Dograma is made by tearing bread into small pieces and mixing it with boiled meat, onion and tomato, then pouring the hot broth over the top. It takes time to tear the bread by hand, which is part of why it's associated with gatherings.
Soups and porridges
12. Shurpa
Shurpa is a clear meat soup, often with potatoes and carrots, and the broth is the base for many other dishes. It's a common starter in restaurants and a good thing to order on a cold evening in the desert.
13. Unash
Unash is a noodle soup, often made with beans. It's simpler than shurpa and very much a home dish.
14. Ýarma
Ýarma is a porridge of crushed wheat cooked with meat. It's slow, filling food, more often made at home than ordered in a restaurant.
Fruit and drink
15. Melons
Turkmen melons are famous across the region, and the country celebrates Melon Day on the second Sunday of August. Hundreds of varieties are grown, from long yellow winter melons to the orange-fleshed gurbek. From July to September, roadside stalls stack them in pyramids.
A cut gurbek, one of the many Turkmen melon varieties. Photo: Bayram A / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Green tea (gök çaý) is poured at every meal, from a small pot into a bowl. In the Dashoguz region you'll often see tea with milk. Gatyk is the local yoghurt, and in desert areas you may be offered chal, fermented camel milk, which is sour and fizzy and worth trying once.
Where to try Turkmen food
The Gulistan Bazaar in Ashgabat, better known as the Russian Bazaar, is the easiest place to start. It has bread, dried fruit, pickles, spices and a few small cafés, all in the centre of the city. The Altyn Asyr bazaar on the edge of Ashgabat, often called Tolkuchka, is bigger and better for snacks while you shop. Our Ashgabat travel guide covers both.
Fruit stalls at the Gulistan (Russian) Bazaar in Ashgabat. Photo: Ljuba brank / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Outside the capital, the best food is often the simplest. Roadside bakeries on the Ashgabat to Mary road sell somsa and chorek, and the Bai Bazaar in Dashoguz is good for bread and pastries in the morning. Desert camps at Darvaza serve shashlyk and salads around a fire. On the Caspian at Avaza and Turkmenbashi, fish takes over from lamb.
The meal worth arranging is one in a family home. It usually starts with tea, bread, sweets and dried fruit on a cloth spread on the floor, then moves on to soup and palaw. If you'd like that included on your trip, our hospitality page explains the customs, and the cultural etiquette guide covers what to do at the table.
A few things help at any table. Accept tea when it's offered and drink a little even if you're full. Don't put bread on the floor or upside down, and never throw it away in front of your hosts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the national dish of Turkmenistan?
Palaw (plov) is the dish most Turkmen would name. It's rice cooked with lamb, carrots and onion, and it's the centrepiece of weddings and holidays.
Is Turkmen food spicy?
No. Most dishes are seasoned with salt, black pepper and onion. Flavour comes from the meat, the bread and fresh herbs.
Can vegetarians eat well in Turkmenistan?
It takes some planning. Pumpkin manty, spinach gutap, salads, bread, yoghurt and fruit are easy to find, but soups and rice dishes are usually made with meat or meat broth. Tell your guide in advance so restaurants can prepare something.
When is the best time for Turkmen melons?
Late summer. July to September is melon season, and Melon Day falls on the second Sunday of August.
Can I eat at a Turkmen family home on a tour?
Yes, home visits can be arranged on many tours, often in villages near Ashgabat or along the Silk Road route. Ask when you book.
Plan a trip around Turkmen food
Most of these dishes turn up naturally on a classic route through Ashgabat, the desert and Merv, and a few need a bit of arranging. If you'd like a family meal, a bazaar morning or a bread-baking stop built into your trip, get in touch with our team and we'll plan it with you.