…There is no tastier bread than pita bread from Samarkand. A real flatbread from Samarkand should be edible for three years. All that is needed is to sprinkle it with water and heat it in the tandur (clay oven where flatbread is baked). Anyone who has been to Samarkand will not leave without Samarkand flatbread. They come in different sizes: small ones with sesame seeds, large ones with glaze, and always delicious, so it is not surprising that legends have grown up around them.
Once, the Khan of Bukhara asked his advisors why bread was brought to Bukhara from Samarkand when they could be baked in Bukhara. They replied that only bread baked in Samarkand was tasty, but the Shah did not believe his advisors and ordered them to bring bread from Samarkand to Bukhara. The order was carried out. Khan sent men to Samarkand to get the best flatbread baker in the city and ordered him to bake flatbread in Bukhara. However, they were not as good as they should be. The councillors thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that it was because of the ingredients. They brought from Samarkand tandur, flour, water, simply everything that was needed, but even then the flatbreads were not comparable to those in Samarkand. Then the master said, “It must be the air”. Soon after, he was allowed to return home, and people started bringing pita bread from Samarkand as before.
This tradition has survived until today. No one leaves Samarkand without the famous flatbread, which stays soft and does not go mouldy for a long time.