{"id":75737,"date":"2025-12-25T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/dec\/24\/tashkent-supermarket-west-village"},"modified":"2025-12-25T00:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:00:15","slug":"fresh-manty-and-cheap-figs-a-post-soviet-supermarket-becomes-a-must-visit-spot-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=75737","title":{"rendered":"Fresh \u2018manty\u2019 and cheap figs: a post-Soviet supermarket becomes a must-visit spot in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tashkent Supermarket\u2019s new West Village location offers staples like <em>plov <\/em> and <em>samsas<\/em> hot and fresh \u2013 a taste of Central Asia for everyone<\/p>\n<p>When I first stepped into the Tashkent Supermarket in Brighton Beach, I could barely get around. The store was bustling, packed with the familiar unsmiling faces of post-Soviet people eager to get their hands on foods like <em>manty<\/em> \u2013 intricately shaped dumplings filled with minced beef, onion and, depending on where you\u2019re from, pumpkin for the subtle sweetness. Or <em>chak-chak<\/em>, a dessert made of small pieces of fried golden dough held together by honey syrup. <em>Kompot, <\/em>too, a drink made by simmering seasonal or dried fruits.<\/p>\n<p>Growing up in Kazakhstan, these were staples in school cafeterias and at home. <em>Manty<\/em> was one of the first dishes my mom taught me to make \u2013 I thought she was a magician, the way she rolled the stretchy dough out so wide and thin, yet thick enough to hold the filling without tearing. I was rarely allowed to have soda or sugary drinks, but homemade <em>kompot<\/em> with fruits and berries from our garden was an exception. And though I never mastered <em>chak-chak<\/em>, the store-bought version was always a treat. As I got older and traveled across other former Soviet republics, I found comfort in knowing I would always find <em>plov<\/em> and <em>samsas<\/em> at eateries in Moscow, Baku and Tbilisi.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/dec\/24\/tashkent-supermarket-west-village\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tashkent Supermarket\u2019s new West Village location offers staples like plov  and samsas hot and fresh \u2013 a taste of Central Asia for everyoneWhen I first stepped into the Tashkent Supermarket in Brighton Beach, I could barely get around. The store was bus&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,311,1298,335,61,2509,47,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-food","category-new-york","category-retail-industry","category-south-and-central-asia","category-supermarkets","category-us-news","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75738,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75737\/revisions\/75738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}