More Snow, More Mountains, And Armenian Cuisine

travel 2 Minutes

When we left the monastery, we walked around a bit to take in some amazing views.

The last ray of the sun over the mountain

Somewhere at that point, I started to realize that my feet were getting cold. It was not so cold objectively, but my usual problem kicked in: we walked very slowly, so I got the same effect as when I stand almost still: no matter how warm my footware is, if it’s below 40F, my feet are getting cold! That being said, I didn’t mind our excurtion to be almost over.

A look back at the monastery

I tried a lot of Armenian dishes at my hosts’ house, but I also wanted to go to a nice and authentic Armenian restaurant before I leave, and my hosts suggested the Hatsi restaurant, which was a total delight!

What would you think when you hear “a cheese plate”? Anything but that! All locate cheese, all new an unusual tastes.
Tanapoor – a warm yogurt soup, if you ca imagine this! I was so curios about how you can make the yogurt soup warm and not turn it into cheese, that I quesitoned my hosts first, and then found a recipe. I probably won’t be making it, but it’s good to know!
This amazing dish is called tzhvzhik, and it is made of beef liver, and I definitely going to give it a try!
Super-delicios and tender kebabs (chicken and veal)
A bread basket and gata (the latter one is a traditional Armenian sweet which was added to our dinner by the house)

Other dishes not pictured that we tried was tabbouleh – bulgur and tomato salad, rezhan – “before butter” cream, tolma, which only looked like Greek dolma, but tasted very differently, and a dessert made of pohondz – traditional Armenian flour made from roasted wheat grains. It was served with raspberry jam and vanilla icecream on top.

Here is my culinary experience summary: I knew nothing about Armenian cuisine. Unlike Georgian cuisine, which was wastly publicized in the Soviet Union, and served in many restaurants outside Georgia (and nis ow served in many restaurants in the US), the Armenian cuisine was barely known outside Armenia.

I loved all of these soft cheeses, so light, tangy, and slightly salted – just couldn’t get enough of them. One cheese I tried at my hosts’ home and loved it more than any other is called Yeghegnadzor (no, I didn’t learn how to spell it, I copied it from the Wiki). The Wiki page says that this cheese, also known also as Horats panir is a traditional Armenian semi-soft cheese originating from the town of Yeghegnadzor in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia. The name horats panir refers to the method of maturation — the cheese is stored in clay vessels that are buried in the ground. Now, how cool is that? My hosts told me that in summer, you can buy this cheese from the locals, and you can even see the ashes on top. The cheese I tried was from a store :).

In general, all the food has mild but still rich taste, and even though it sounds like a gargantuan dinner, it was not too much. As I said, I am going to try at least some of the recipes.

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Published by Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

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