Based on the awesome responses to 'aloo Bukhara', I need to tell you a story. (Some pix won't match.)

I'd longed to visit beautiful #Samarkand & #Bukhara. Planning this trip, I discovered the Baburnama. In his frankly hilarious memoir, the Mughal emperor Babur reminisced...

at length about the orchards of his birthplace in the Fergana Valley, the sweetness of the apricots, figs, plums and so on.

I kept envisioning those platters of 'sweetmeats' you read about in the Andrew Lang fairytale books.

I decided no matter what, I'm going to Fergana.

I'm tasting those apricots fresh from the orchard myself. Doesn't matter that Fergana is far to the east and the journey doesn't exactly fit my Tashkent-Samarkand-Bukhara-Khiva plan.

Or that I was taking a human rights activist through the military checkpoints of what was largely a police state to reach it. Apricots vs. Husband was my calculation. He's pretty quiet on Uzbekistan, I said. (His screen was flagged on exit, lol.) Nevertheless, we persisted.

Oh that drive down to the valley was gorgeous. The Pamir-Alai mountain range, the green rivers, the incredibly generous people.

The markets were bustling, there were things to see and do and try around every corner, friends to make, mosques to pray in, ceramics to purchase....but where, oh where, were the famous apricots?

Long story cut brutally short: they'd had a bad winter and the harvest froze. Babur's apricots were not to be mine -- my quixotic soul was disappointed.

This bread was my consolation.

But let me say that, apricots aside, Fergana was stunningly beautiful, and may or may not show up in #TheKhorasanArchives as the Damson Vale. As in, if you want to end your days with your true love in a place that's purely magical... #Fergana #DamsonVale.

Interested in human rights? Sinnia is captured by the enemy and sent to Jaslyk prison in #TheBlackKhan. Jaslyk has a real life counterpart in Uzbekistan.

But to end on a lighter note, you will never regret a visit to this soul-stirring country. Where, if so inclined, you can also visit the tomb of Imam Bukhari. Perhaps its austere beauty will compensate for the absence of apricots.

Apricot : Ben Smethers. Tomb : AZK.