National cuisine festival in Avaza: Turkmen carpets, Khorezm shivit oshi, a Kazakh yurt, Azerbaijani tea and mugham

On the evening of 8 October the CIS National Culinary Festival was held in the Avaza zone of Turkmenbashi as part of Turkmenistan's CIS chairmanship programme. Nine countries showed their cuisine and crafts: the Turkic states of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, together with Armenia, Belarus, Russia and Tajikistan. The leaders who had come for the summits toured the pavilions together.

The host Turkmenistan's pavilion displayed melons and other gourds, fresh bread and Turkmen carpets. Chefs cooked from the book "Bereketli türkmen saçagy" ("The Bountiful Turkmen Table"), and a literary and musical show called "Oguzlar" ("The Oghuz") was staged. Guests were invited to a Turkmen spread in a white yurt, the "Ak öý".

In the Uzbekistan pavilion Khorezm cuisine stood out: shivit oshi, noodles coloured green with dill, tukhum-barak dumplings, several kinds of samsa and plov. Regional breads, sweets and dried fruit were on show, and craftspeople from Rishtan, Bukhara, Margilan and Samarkand demonstrated their skills. Dancers with long braids drew a big crowd.

Kazakhstan's pavilion came in two parts: a traditional one with a yurt, tazy hounds and girls in festive dress, and a few steps on, modern Kazakhstan with robots, new technologies and the Alatau City project. The Kyrgyz pavilion presented national dishes, costumes and music, and the leaders stopped there too.

Azerbaijan's pavilion was prepared by the Ministry of Culture and the State Tourism Agency. The culinary section showed produce from different regions and Azerbaijan's tea culture, which is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list; the crafts section featured carpets, kelaghayi silk headscarves, copperwork, wood carving and ceramics. A 19th-century Karabakh house interior was recreated from an exhibition of the National Carpet Museum, and young khanendes sang mugham. In the evening the Turkmen President hosted an official reception and concert.