Cities Where Street Food is Better Than Any Michelin Restaurant

39. Tashkent, Uzbekistan: Silk Road Sustenance

Tashkent brings Central Asian soul to the street. You’ll smell the non before you see it—crisp-edged round bread stamped with patterns and baked in clay ovens. Street vendors flame-grill shashlik (meat skewers) over open coals, served with raw onions and vinegar. The crown jewel? Samsa—triangle-shaped dough parcels stuffed with minced meat, onions, and spices, then baked till blistered. On cooler evenings, locals slurp lagman, a hand-pulled noodle soup rich with beef and chili oil. And everywhere, melons—massive, sweet, sun-warmed. Street food here is sturdy, sustaining, and centuries-old—made to fuel travelers long before Uber Eats ever existed.