Dining in Dushanbe: Chinese Restaurant

by Adrienne Wilson on

Lunch at the Chinese restaurant was like a blur. Perhaps it is not even fair of me to provide a review considering all the factors: eight very jet lagged and hungry foreigners together for the first time with one very quaint young waitress. I would not wish that situation upon anyone, but allow me to talk only on the food.

My taste buds lead me to a spicy chicken dish and I sampled some of the fried rice off a companion’s plate. Now, I have had a large amount of Chinese food in my lifetime and in comparison to all the rest this little Chinese joint next door to the Indian spot off of Rudaki doesn’t get any medals. The food was okay, but I’ve had much better Chinese in parts of Alabama. On the up side it’s a great place to stop if you’re searching for fare less greasy/oily than some of the traditional Tajik finds around the town.

Affordable (low-mid range) and extremely accommodating staff.

Volunteer Vacation Day Three: More Dirt, More Mud

by Adrienne Wilson on


On day three we found we were being moved to a new site for another family close by to the one we had been working with the first two days. This new home was being built from the ground up, but we were coming in with a significant portion of the framing done. The home would belong to a doctor, his wife and 16 year-old son along with the parents of either the doctor or the wife. It became a little unclear and confusing at times how much extended family resided in anyone household in Tajikistan. The part about Habitat Global Village builds I enjoy most is the interaction with the families on the worksite, but the doctor was often at the office, the wife seldom around and the son actually helped out quite a bit when school was out. That day we would be making and mixing mud. Sort of.

All of the women in our group got pretty excited when we heard we would be making mud and mixing mud. We were certain this was the part of the build were we would detox our achy limbs by accidentally getting mud on our arms and legs during the process, but to our surprise and slight disappointment we were not granted the rights to play in the mud. Instead we would fetch water in buckets once more to pour over the dirt and straw that would later get tossed in. Once the straw became part of the equation I don’t really think anyone was dying to jump in. I imagined developing a nasty looking rash from the foreign materials and what my customs form might look like on the way back into the U.S.

U.S. Customs Form: Have you spent any time on farms, pastures, agricultural lands or with any foreign livestock?

My Response: Of course not. I just rolled and tossed around in Grade-A Tajikistan hay.

So my volunteer vacation continued being more of a construction boot-camp than a spa excursion with detoxing-mud treatments. I was cool with that. My body was starting to adjust to the physical labor and I could barely feel pain anymore. Second to creating mud we had to shovel dirt into buckets and fill in the hole that would later become the front porch. Neither task was exactly easier than other in the blazing dry heat. Throughout the day we took many water breaks which gave us time to joke with our onsite volunteers/translators (Khushvakhtullo and Khurshed) and probe them for useful Tajik or Russian phrases. Beyond the language the entire group was eager to learn more about the families. And little by little we learned more and more. Aside from our small cultural lessons and unfaltering efforts day three on the worksite was slightly uneventful in regards to anything shocking. Once we filled the porch and the mud and straw had been mixed our day was done. Tomorrow all that mud would go up right onto the roof!

Dining in Dushanbe: Sim Sim

by Adrienne Wilson on

I’m not entirely sure when Sim Sim came into existence or why it didn’t make guidebooks, but all that doesn’t really matter. If you’re searching for live over-the-top entertainment, decent dishes and a chance to hob-knob with some of Dushanbe’s upper-class you’ve found the right place.

Before entering listen closely for the warm welcome into Sim Sim. It’ll be hard to miss as the boisterous fellow dressed as a Mongol man from some fairy-tale time long ago will be sure to make his presence known there and throughout the evening. Walk up the steps and proceed to your table after passing through the guards staffed with spears and shields. Sim Sim is all show so it’s advised you have the time to make it a full night and the energy as well. As your make your order sway to the sounds of Celine Dion hits sung by Tajik karaoke singers in addition to traditional Tajik tunes as well. The singers come across pretty lifeless, but the real show begins after you’ve placed your order. Complete with belly dancers, traditional Tajik dancers and skits by our Mongol pals in the castle it gets pretty wild, a little tacky, but you’re sure to laugh and have a ball of a time. (If you’re geeked up about dining in a place like Sim Sim feel free to check out my very poorly produced video clip from my night out.)

In regards to the food, I believe I received the wrong dish or the remixed version of it that night. I had requested the Khasray Kastle, a beef roll with asparagus, but what showed up didn’t really taste like beef and had peas with no asparagus to be found. Disappointed? Yes and I was far too tired to send the dish back after waiting 30 plus minutes for it in the first place.

To wrap it up the food is so-so, but the good times non-stop. Sim Sim is not located on the main drag so you’ll just need to ask a taxi driver to take you there and you’ll be on your way.

Salamati!

Volunteer Vacation Day Two: Making Concrete Is Not Easy

by Adrienne Wilson on


What a difference a day makes! In our case we were all terribly sore, but chipper as ever. Okay, there is the one small exception of a few upset stomachs in the bunch. Still we were all very ready to continue building, but before I go further, yesterday I made an awful mistake of forgetting to tell how the homebuilding in Dushanbe works. In all regions Habitat for Humanity affiliates are located in the home building tends to be slightly different. This is due to a number of factors, but I’ll stay focused on Dushanbe. Tajikistan gained independence from the Soviet Republic in 1991, but soon afterwards saw a civil war which lasted until 1997. During that time home building basically came to a drastic halt, many unfinished homes remained, and the existing housing stock deteriorated from neglect. That being said two of the homes we would work on during our project time would not be from the ground up, rather homes that had either seen damage from fighting or shooting that broke out in the past or needed an extension for the growing number of family members.

Proceeding to day two, our amazing construction supervisor, Saiali and equally amazing volunteer, Christina (she’d previously done 5 GV builds) demonstrated how to mix the gravel in with the cement to make concrete for the frame. Christina mentally prepared us by letting us know it would not be easy. Seeing the difficulty in the task was no sweat. Our mixture required four buckets of gravel, approximately two or three buckets of cement and around two and a half buckets of water. First steps involved mixing the gravel with the cement real well and creating a volcanic like crater which the water would be poured into. Then you’d have to shovel the mixture upwards into the center of the crater until the hole was basically inexistent. Let’s call the process tedious.

Once our mixture was complete the next step was getting it from the ground and into the frame which involved another bucket line. Carrying dirt felt like feathers compared to lifting and carrying wet concrete in buckets. The work was not easy and if you were one in the group with tummy aches it wasn’t any easier. As we chugged through completing the length of the frame that had been set the Tajik workers continued to be impressed. I just hoped we’d continue to have enough strength throughout the rest of the build to be shining stars to the finish.

Dining in Dushanbe: Merve

by Adrienne Wilson on

Dushanbe isn’t NYC, it isn’t Paris, and it most certainly isn’t Rome. In other words it may not be the most high-trafficked culinary city in terms of tourism, but having had the opportunity to dine out around town quite often I feel it my duty to dish the 411 on the good and bad plates in this big Central Asian city. To kick it off I’ll start with Merve.

Merve makes Lonely Planet’s Author’s Choice and for good reason. Affordable, tasty meals with friendly wait-staff make this one a real winner. For the first two weeks of my stay, Merve was the breakfast stop for me and my Habitat GV companions every morning. Start the day with a small yoghurt, sausage omelet, or Turkish pizza – three menu items that quickly became personal favorites. Initially the sausage has an awkward taste, but it grows on you. I’m told its chicken sausage since pork can’t really be found in Dushanbe. Mornings are pretty quiet at the Turkish cafe, but things start getting really busy around 11 AM and stay busy until closing time. If you check in for lunch, grab the donar kebab. It can be prepared on a sandwich, but go for the shredded meat over rice. Dishes range from 2TJS-7TJS.

There are two locations in Dushanbe, though the most popular appears to be that found at Rudaki 92.