Pishme

Pishme (Pishime, Pişme, пишме) is a food of Turkmenistan made by cutting wheat-flour dough into small squares or diamonds and frying them in oil. The surface turns golden brown, while the inside keeps the softness of the dough. At celebrations it is served with green tea. Its sweetness is not fixed: alongside current methods that add sugar, memories of making it without sugar have also been passed down.

Cut into diamonds and puffed up in oil

One way of making it combines wheat flour, water or milk, yeast, salt and sugar. In the 2012 recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method) from One Turkmen Kitchen, which documents Turkmen cuisine, 300 milliliters of water or milk are used for 500 grams of wheat flour. The soft dough is left to rise, divided and rested briefly, then rolled out to a thickness of about 5 millimeters.

It is cut into strips 4–5 centimeters wide and then cut diagonally, producing many small diamonds. Because the dough is rolled out large and then cut in a regular pattern, this way of shaping makes it easier to produce a sizable batch than with sweets that are twisted into shape one by one.

The pieces are fried while being moved with a slotted ladle until both sides are evenly colored. Even when the surface has browned, the inside is not necessarily cooked through. The pieces are cooked to the center, with attention to their thickness and how far the dough has risen.

This recipe notes that replacing the water with milk gives a softer result. Some versions contain milk or eggs, and others add fat; it is not a fixed rule that the formula uses all of milk, eggs and butter.

Not only sweet

The 2012 record of home cooking notes that pishme was once made without sugar, while giving a formula that includes sugar. These small pieces of fried dough eaten with tea have been made with differing degrees of sweetness from household to household and from era to era.

The sweetness that first touches the mouth also differs between versions finished with powdered sugar or honey on the outside and versions with sugar worked into the dough. Pishme appears on the tea table both as a sweet treat and as a fried bread enjoyed for the flavor of the flour.

Celebratory tea and the spring table

Besides being served when welcoming guests, pishme is served with tea at gatherings celebrating weddings and births. In a recorded example of a family celebration, the tea served with it is green tea. The small pieces are heaped on a large platter, and those gathered help themselves.

At Nowruz in spring, it is set out alongside dishes made with grains and milk. The menu introduced by the Embassy of Turkmenistan also lists layered toy gatlama, fried and sprinkled with sugar; thin sherpek; and small, sweet pishme. Festive fried foods, too, differ in their dough layers, thickness and the way they are cut.

In 2021, a Nowruz exhibition at the State Museum recreated a scene of a mother and daughter making pishme inside a temporary yurt. Nearby, the cooking of semeni, made by simmering sprouted wheat and flour, was also shown. The handwork of serving fried diamonds to guests is presented as a scene from everyday life as spring arrives.

A custom of welcoming guests that continues across borders

Turkmen people living in Dusti in southern Tajikistan also prepare pishme when welcoming guests. When a cultural delegation from Turkmenistan visited in 2018, pishme was served along with songs and dances. Even in a land away from the homeland, these small pieces of fried dough have become a food of welcome.

In neighboring regions, baursak and boorsok also include forms in which dough is cut into small pieces and fried. For pishme, there are records of it being served with green tea at celebrations, and home methods of cutting it into diamonds have been preserved. Comparing whether there are layers and how thick the dough is also reveals how it differs from toy gatlama and sherpek, which appear on the same celebratory plates.

The Expo table where it was introduced in Japan as “Pishime”

At Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, visitors also had the chance to order it at the Turkmenistan Pavilion under the name “Pishime” and enjoy it with tea. On July 26 that year, a cooking demonstration of pishme and other dishes was held in the pavilion, and the cooks explained the ingredients and preparation steps to visitors. An account of a visit to the restaurant also records an order of pishime with black tea.

Glossary