Armenian Cuisine

The cuisine that includes the cooking techniques of the Armenian people and the Armenian diaspora reflects the history and geography of the Armenians, and also reflects the traditional crops and animals. Its tradition influenced the nearby countries and cities like Aleppo, especially the preparation of fish, meat, and vegetable dishes. This preparation requires stuffing and pureeing. Eggplant, lamb, bread, and yoghurt are the basic features of this cuisine. This cuisine uses cracked wheat and is popular among its Caucasian neighbours such as Georgia and Azerbaijan.

The foods prepared include appetisers like herb and grain salads, boeregs, skewers, and grilled meats, soups, flat breads, stews, and thin crust pizza called lahmajoun.

Appetisers served for the Armenian cuisines include Hummus, Chechil, Mutabal, Lahmajoun, Boraki, and Chee Kufta. Hummus is based on chickpea spread. Chechil is pickled and braided string cheese. Mutabal is grilled eggplant mashed or chopped with spices to form a coarse paste. Lahmajoun is a thin-crust pizza with ground meat as topping. Boraki is an Armenian fried Pelmeni served with yoghurt and chopped garlic.

For salads, they serve Eetch, Tabouleh, and Fattoush. Eetch is bulgur salad; Tabouleh is composed of wheat and mint; and Fattoush is pita bread salad.

Boeregs also one of the favourite appetisers in Armenian cuisine and are spicy pies made with cheese or spinach. These are a popular snack and fast food. Also, the Sou boereg is a lasagna style dish boiled in a large pan that is spread with fillings. Mison boereg is a bread roll with ground meat.

Grilled meat is usually the main course in restaurants and at any occasion. It is also eaten as a fast food such as Khorovats and Gharsi khorovats. Khorovats are Armenian barbecued or grilled meat. It is often served in restaurants and at special family occasions. Some communities outside Armenia choose to use lamb, beef, or chicken. Gharsi khorovats are grilled meat rolled up in lavash or cracked bread.

Soups are also one of the appetisers served in Armenian cuisine, such as spas, aveluk, kiuffa, khash, and t’ghit. Spas is a soup made from yoghurt, wheat, and herbs. Aveluk is made from lentils, wild mountain sorrel, and walnuts, while kiuffa is from large balls of strained boiled meat. Khash is also a soup which is considered as an Armenian institution and songs and poems have even been written about this dish. This soup is made from herbs and ham cocks. According to tradition, khash is only cooked by men that spend their whole night cooking, and it can only be eaten early in the morning in the dead of winter. Khash is served with dried lavash and fresh garlic. T’ghit is also one of the traditional foods that is made from t’tu lavash and cut into small pieces and boiled in water. In cooking t’ghit, fried onions are added to the mixture which is cooked. Lavash bread is placed on the top of the mixture, which is eaten hot and fresh.

Fish is also served in this cuisine, such as Ishkhan, Sig, Karmrakhayt, and Kogak. Ishkhan is served steamed, grilled, baked in the oven, while Sig is a whitefish.

The Armenian cuisine also includes alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks served for special occasions.