Traditionally, it's only eaten for a celebration, but I think it's so good that I usually eat it at least once a week. The first time I had osh, I was with my friends. They took me to a very famous oshkhona (osh restaurant). We sat on a raised platform, called a tapchan, covered in soft pillows and blankets and draped with grass window shades. The osh came out piled sky-high on enormous platters. There was so much of it! I couldn't believe it was all for us. My friends saw how shocked I was, and laughed. They told me that when they eat osh, they usually order over three pounds per person -- and eat it all!
I tried my first bite and fell in love. The meat was so tender and sweet, and the rice and the carrots were salty and silky. I tried bites of osh paired with traditional side dishes: tangy yogurt, stewed lemons, pickled cabbage, baked garlic and even quail's eggs. Each combination was new and wonderful. I scooped up osh with crusty bread just out of the oven, and washed it all down with sweet lemon tea. Since that day, osh has been my favorite food.
Preparing osh is very complicated. Traditionally, it's cooked by men in a giant iron pot (called a degh) over a fire. First, you fry the meat and the onions at the bottom of the pot. Next, you add spices and sliced carrots, and wait until the carrots become soft. Finally, you cover everything in water and rice, and put a lid on the degh so the rice can steam.
It's important to cook osh in layers, and not to stir the pot.
