Most Armenians make do with a cup of Armenian Coffee, bread and jam, though more lavish spreads include cold meats, fish, pickled vegetables and omelets. A tasty version is made with whipped eggs and fresh tomatoes (ask for a tomati omelet). Restaurants and hotels serve the more lavish affair, which costs between $2-5, or is included in your overnight fee. Café’s primarily offer pastries or cakes for breakfast. A real favorite in the rural areas is mountain yogurt (matsun, mah-TSOON), that comes in several consistencies, all of them incredibly delicious. If yours is a little sour, just add sugar or honey.

Bread shops offer freshly baked bread at affordable prices (150 AMD is the average). The typical bread is a leavened oblong loaf about an inch high, made from a mixture of whole and white wheat. “Box loafs” are also available, as is the traditional Armenian bread, called lavash. Lavash is very large paper thin, chewy bread that can only be made by hand, often in underground ceramic kilns. Good lavash has a flexible texture to it, and looks nutty-brown when cooked. Lavash is easily dried, and can be re-used by sprinkling water on it then covering with cloth and letting sit for a while. It also makes excellent soup crackers (esp. with Khash)

Armenia is a very ancient Aryan cultures that most probably originated in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers thousands of years ago, settling eventually high in the Caucus Mountains, bordered by the Black, Caspian and Mediterranean seas., as well as in the Cilicia region of modern day Turkey. While traditionally not nearly as nomadic as many Middle Eastern tribes, Armenians have long been wanderers of the world. Wherever they have found themselves, Armenians have tended to maintain a strong ethnic identity.

So, in Armenian kitchens throughout the world, spring means picking young, tender wild grape leaves and rolling them into platters of sarmas coming out of the kitchen, cooked when the wild grape leaves used to wrap the fragrant rice and lamb filling were at their very best.

As the tomatoes, peppers and zucchini ripen in the backyard garden, the dolma season comes next. Dolmas taste best when the vegetables used for stuffing the lamb/rice mixture are right off the vine… ripe…. but not as large as the produce becomes further into the season. Whole meals are constructed from dolmas, served warm with dollops of cold, fresh madzoon (yoghurt), Armenian flatbread, and maybe a salad of tomatoes or cucumbers on the side.

A restaurant and cafe culture is starting to flourish again in Armenia, with street stalls and privately run establishments replacing the colorless state restaurants typical of the Soviet era. New cafes and restaurants open daily. Many of the cafes are in parks, and are very popular in summer with locals and tourists alike.

Things to know: Much Armenian cooking is based on lamb, either grilled and served as shashlik with flat bread, or prepared as soup (the most popular being bozbash, a dish which exists in infinite variations) or stew, often in combination with fruit or
nuts. A meal usually starts with a large spread of hors d’oeuvres, which may include peppers and vine leaves stuffed with rice and meat, pickled and fresh vegetables, salty white sheep’s cheese eaten with fresh green herbs and flat bread, and various kinds of cured meat (basturma).

During the season following the grape harvest, locals sell effervescent, mildly fermented grape juice from roadside stands. Armenia is also abundant in all kinds of sweet-tasting fruits, from figs to pomegranates to quince. Coffee is served Turkish-style – strong and black in tiny cups – although in view of national sensibilities, visitors would be ill-advised to refer to this cultural similarity.

Snack Bars
Also known as Bistros, Snack bars are strictly stood up or eat and run affairs, with fixed sandwich or specialty menus. Snack bars usually offer fried potatoes and soft drinks on the menu, but the emphasis is on fast food. Snack bars and Bistros are the best option for travelers on the go. Food Stands are scattered throughout City parks and near shukas (food markets). They specialize in very limited menus, which are filling and can be bought for as cheap as 50 AMD ($0.10) a portion.

T’khvatsk Shops (t’kh-VAHTSK, Bakeries, patisserie)
Entrikner sell cakes (traditional and western style cream cakes), cookies, chocolates, sweets and soft drinks. Armenians pride themselves on their desserts, and authentic recipes are delectable. The incredible concoctions called cakes (torte) can be too much sugar filled and lacking in specific taste, but traditional walnut and honey treats and the national dessert called gata are delicious.

Some folks also rave about the incredibly fresh and tasty fruits and vegetables grown in Armenia. The variety is astonishing, beginning with apricots and peaches, both of which originated in Armenia, through cherries, apples, grapes, figs, pomegranates, pears, quince, plums, oranges, lemons, an incredible variety of melons, squash, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, cabbage, onions, potatoes, carrots, peas, beans, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts—the list is almost endless, and each region has it’s own special variety and type which are mouthwatering just to look at.

Herbs and spices include cinnamon, cardamom, clove, cumin, nutmeg, garlic, thyme, rosemary, parsley, sage, as well as wild salad herbs (called greens), that include water cress, lettuce and spinach. Wild rice and wheat still grow much as they did 15,000 years ago, when mankind first began to cultivate them.

It does take some knowledge of Armenian food to enjoy the full variety, and you need to understand that recipes are prepared seasonally, using the freshest meats, vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices available.

Shukas are Fresh Food markets, known as rinoks (REE-noks) in Russian. You owe it to yourself to visit a shuka while here, if for nothing else than sampling the myriad smells of fresh produce and spices. Shukas are stocked with freshly butchered meat (sometimes set apart from the main shuka in a separate location), fish, vegetables and fruits piled in beautiful designs, spices, a variety of greens (fresh herbs), mushrooms, cheeses and dairy products, breads and a few canned food shops mixed in the throng. Often farmers will stand outside the main entrances peddling the same quality foods for a little less. Recently, sidewalk sellers have begun to gravitate towards shukas, where they sell everything from hardware, light bulbs, toiletries and magazines. Sellers offer anyone they think might buy a free sample and you should feel free to taste before buying. There are no fixed prices at a shuka, so bargaining is required, often considered an essential part of the shopping experience. A good Armenian phrase to learn is verchin gina inch eh? (vehr-CHEEN geen-ah eench eh?) Which means “What’s the final price?” since you can haggle for ages, and this phrase cuts to the quick.

Eating in Armenia is an exciting and rich experience. Food in Armenia has many different styles with thousands of great restaurants in all the major cities and towns of Armenia. All of them seem to boast about one chef or another, which is good, but for most of us we want to get down to eating.

In addition, food in Yerevan and other Armenian tourist resorts is not restricted to traditional Armenian delights. Cuisine from all over the world can be found in Armenia, including Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern, and other international tastes. Fast food chains are rising in popularity due to convenience and their family oriented style.

If you come to Armenia in summer season you may be offered to taste the best Armenian fruits such as grapes, peaches and apricots.

But if you appear in Armenia in winter times most likely you will be invited to go for khash-a masterpiece of Armenian cuisine made by cows’ feet, stomach and Armenian ingenuity. Khash is a unique experience for any foreign visitor, and whether they like it or not (and many don’t), almost all enjoy the ritual of a khash party.

Khash is a gastronomic ceremony, a combination of ritual and lively heart-to-heart talks in the flavor of garlic and raddish.

To prepare totikner (this is how Armenians call cow’s feet) for cooking it should be stripped of hairs and clean until it turns opaque.

Then, the cow feet are boiled all night until the ingredients give its juice and piquancy to water and the flesh flakes off the bones.

Usually Armenians go for khash in the morning on weekends, because after a khash party, participants are happy, but also heavy with sleep and, typically, not smelling so sociably acceptable. It may not be the cow feet that make a person sleepy; rather the vodka, which, real khash professionals assures is good for digestion.

Besides vodka, a proper khash must have six components: mineral water, greens, raddishes, yellow chili pepers, lavash and garlic. Minced garlic and salt – lots of both — is put into khash right before the eating. Dry lavash is soaked in the soup until it becomes like a sponge. Hardcore khash eaters use only their fingers for consuming the odd meal, and they recommend that participants abstain from eating, early on the previous evening.

Armenien food reflects Mediterranean, Eastern European and Middle Eastern influence. Eggplant, onions and garlic are central to a summer Armenian diet. Dried fruits, nuts, rice and dry preserved olives are used in the winter months. Yogurt (mahdzoon) is a key ingredient in Armenian cooking and is used as a beverage and hot or cold soup.
Fast Facts

1. Lamb is the meat staple
2. No pork used in the Armenian diet
3. Fish primarily fresh water due to lack of salt water access
4. Influenced by strong Christian beliefs.
5. Major honey producer and consumer

Appetizers

Popular Armenian appetizers include many pastries, including Boeregs which are filled with cheese. Hummus is also popular to serve, which is a smooth chickpea paste.

Cafes are a legacy in Armenia that was the first republic of the Soviet Union to be allowed to open them. Most are on sidewalks or in parks, but a number of small bistros are called cafes. At cafes you can order snacks, sandwiches and drinks, and some offer hot meals. And of course coffee, which comes in two varieties: Nescafe instant, or Haikakan Style (Armenian Style).

Coffee is often ordered with water (order soverakan or you’ll get a bottle of mineral water that you have to pay for), and a pastry or cake. The joy of cafes is that they almost always set in parks or have plants and flowers around, many have small fountains nearby, and you can sit as long as you like, watching the world go by, visiting with friends, and just contemplating why there isn’t a café as nice as this in your neighborhood.