The national cuisine of this country is considered one of the ancients in Asia and the most ancient one in the Transcaucasia. Armenian culinary traditions derive from the core antique times and the methods of preparation of a number of Armenian dishes remain unchanged for centuries.Armenians love to eat delicious, rich and tasteful meals. A huge number of soups, meat and fish dishes, pilaf with spices and sweeties will tempt and not leave any gourmet indifferent to. The major parts of dishes in Armenian national cuisine are not only labor-intensive and hard to prepare, but also imply a special process, let's say “a ritual” of meal preparation.
One of the most popular and favorite national dishes is KHOROVATS /in Armenian/, some sort of barbeque. KHOROVATS is mainly prepared on some special occasion, with a group of noisy and cheerful friends and a good master who will be entrusted the preparation of the meat and fire, moreover, this Armenian party will never do without a talking point.
Every year a festival of KHOROVATS is organized in Armenia, where the masters and experts of khorovats gather, at the green slopes of mountains, to compete in mastery of this “meat masterpiece”.Another favorite Armenian dish is called “Khash” (word by word “Broth”), which Armenians started to cook in the ancient times before the birth of Christ. Armenians eat Khash early in the morning and it requires a strict compliance to the rules of this meal: no women, spoons, cognac or toasts at the table. To tell the truth, today the first point of the “Khash code” is not being applied, but all the other ones are actual up to date.Ghapama is a festive pilaf which even has its own song. A pumpkin filled with rice, dried apricots, nuts, raisins is put into «tonir» (a national stove) and cooked. Ghapama is mostly preferred on holidays, particularly on Easter and on this day the number of black raisins in it symbolizes the quantity of truly faithful people who will be saved on the Great Tribunal Day. Tolma is certainly the queen of the Armenian cuisine. The Armenian women cook various versions of this ancient dish, however, the most favorite ones are the summer tolma and tolma with grape leaves (in ancient Armenian “TOLI” means grapevine).
The glory of Armenian cuisine extends far beyond the country's borders. There is not a place on the post-Soviet territory (and even farther) where people do not know or love and cultivate Armenian cuisine. The juicy smoking shashlick emitting magnificent aroma, baked vegetables – khoravats saturated with the smell of coals; tender cooked without oil dolma melting in your mouth …delicious! All the dishes of Armenian cuisine are well familiar and loved by us. But what is the historical background of the culinary attraction of Armenia?Armenian Cuisine is as ancient as its history, as the land it is standing on. Armenian culinary traditions are over 2000 years old. The abundance of meat on Armenian tables is the result of the most ancient development of cattle breeding in Armenian uplands which led to such a variety of livestock and poultry. Cattle breeding was also the source of various dairy products – basically brine-ripened cheeses as well as sour-milk products which serve as the basis for traditional Armenian dishes and beverages.
Early beginning of agriculture in the fertile valleys of Armenia caused the application of various cereals in Armenian cuisine - spelt, millet, barley, wheat, rice; beans - string beans, beans, lentil, mountain peas to say nothing of great variety of vegetables and greens which are a must of Armenian feast.
Traditionally Armenians cooked food on fire. The clay furnace began to be called tonir and has retained this name. Armenians used clay kitchen ware too. Tonir was used for cooking bread, mashes, fish and poultry, vegetables, soups and other dishes. By the way, tonir was borrowed by all people of Transcaucasia becoming an integral part of their national culinary. Armenia in general has contributed a lot in term of cooking. Thus, many authentic Armenian dishes later became known in Europe thanks to Persians and Turks as the dishes of their national cuisines. (for example, dolma).In their turn the cuisines of Turkey, Iran and Arabian countries have enriched the culinary culture of Armenia.
Armenian cooking techniques are rather complicated. The most difficult to cook are meat, fish and vegetable dishes which require stuffing, whipping, puree and souffle making as it takes a lot of time and work. Armenians very much love dishes from chopped meat and all possible variants of stuffed dishes.
The thermal processing of dishes is labor-consuming too. One and the same dish or raw product, for example, meat, can be subject to roasting, boiling and stewing in tonir making some dishes of Armenian cuisine melt in your mouth.
Another feature of Armenian cuisine is a great number of greengrocery and spices in preparation of dishes. Armenian cooks use 300 kinds of wild-growing grasses and flowers which are used as seasonings or even as basic dishes.
Fragrant spices are very popular: pepper, coriander, fenugreek, black pepper, mint, tarragon, basil, thyme and of course garlic and onion; and for sweet dishes - cinnamon, cardamom, clove, saffron and vanilla.
The surprising fact is that Armenian cuisine practically does not use fats. The majority of dishes is cooked in drawn butter. It is used for soups, stewing and roasting of meats, poultry, fish and vegetables as well as sweet dishes. Vegetable oils are used in Armenian cuisine less frequently - for preparation of fish and some vegetable dishes (string beans, eggplants). Sesame oil is traditional.