I want to introduce our traditional Uzbek cuisine. The Uzbeks are a very hospitable people. They take delight in treating their guests with dishes that used to be prepared by their ancestors. The Uzbek cuisine has been influenced by other cultures, but all borrowed dishes have unique Uzbek traditional rituals and ways of cooking. National recipes are passed on from one generation to another. A special importance is placed on hot soups (shurpa). Usually they are spicy and rich in vegetables and greens. Shurpa is cooked from fresh or fried meat. Vegetables are cut into large pieces in order to preserve their flavour. Uzbekistan's signature dish is palov (plov or osh), a main course typically made with rice, pieces of meat, grated carrots and onions. It is usually cooked in a kazan (or deghi) over an open fire; chickpeas, raisins, barberries, or fruit may be added for variation. Although often prepared at home for family and guests by the head of household or the housewife, palov is made on special occasions by the oshpaz, or the osh master chef, who cooks the national dish over an open flame, sometimes serving up to 1,000 people from a single cauldron on holidays or occasions such as weddings. Manty are large dumplings stuffed with finely chopped meat, seasoned with various spices and a large amount of onion, and then steamed in a special pot. Samsa (meat pies) is a pastry pie stuffed with meat and onion or pumpkin, potato, cabbage, mushrooms or nuts backed in tandyr . Tandyr is a traditional cylindrical clay oven, heated with coal. Skill is needed when placing the raw samsas or non on the inside wall of the oven. Traditional Uzbek bread, called generically non or patyr, is baked in the form of circular flat loaves (lepeshka in Russian) with a thin decorated depression at the center and a thicker rim all around. Nons are brought to the table with the decorated side up, then torn into irregular chunks which are stacked on the bread plate. Shashlyk , known also as kebabs, is skewered chunks of mutton barbecued over charcoal served with sliced raw onions and non (rounds of unleavened bread). The Uzbek cuisine would be incomplete without tea. For centuries Uzbek people have solved the most serious problems and had heart-to-heart talks while drinking a cup of tea at chaykhanas. A meeting at chaykhanas is a traditional privilege of men. Green tea is served with pilaff and meat dishes. Uzbek people drink tea without milk or sugar, but with plenty of sweets.