This large, two-level market has a true flavour of Central Asia, and is worth putting on your itinerary even if you're not really food shopping. It's been somewhat sanitised in recent years, but its stalls are still piled with nuts, fresh and dried fruit, Georgian sweets, smoked fish, spices, ready-made Korean salads, vegetables, medicinal herbs, cheeses, sausages and enormous hunks of fresh meat. There's an entire row dedicated to horsemeat.

　　You can get kymyz (fermented horse milk), shubat (fermented camel milk) and freshly squeezed pomegranate juice here too – and cafes dotted around the place will serve a bowl of laghman (long, stout noodles) or plov (fried rice with vegetables and sometimes meat) with tea and bread for less than 700T.