Armenia

Anoushabour is an Armenian Christmas pudding of softened whole wheat berries sweetened and studded with dried apricots, raisins, and nuts, perfumed with rose water.

Air-cured, pressed beef coated in a thick fenugreek-paprika-garlic spice paste (chaman) and sliced paper-thin.

A filling of spiced minced lamb and raw rice tightly rolled inside blanched grape leaves and braised in an acidic broth — sour cherry, pomegranate, lemon, or tomato — until the rice swells and the leaf becomes completely tender.

A cold bulgur wheat salad dressed with tomato, fresh herbs, lemon juice, and olive oil, characteristic of Armenian cuisine.

Gata is a traditional Armenian sweet yeasted pastry comprising multiple thin buttery layers of dough rolled with a butter-flour-sugar filling (khoriz) and baked until golden and flaky.

An Armenian festive dish of a whole hollowed pumpkin stuffed with rice, dried fruit, and nuts, then roasted whole until tender and presented intact.

Harissa is a traditional Armenian and Arab feast porridge of hulled wheat and chicken or lamb slow-cooked together for many hours until grains and meat dissolve completely into a dense, ropy, homogeneous mass, finished with a pour of melted butter.

An Armenian thin unleavened flatbread stuffed with a generous mix of finely chopped wild and cultivated greens and herbs, then folded and dry-griddled.

A traditional Caucasian winter dish of cow trotters and tripe boiled for hours into a gelatinous broth, eaten at dawn with garlic, lavash, and salt.

Khorovats is Armenia's national dish — substantial cuts of marinated pork or lamb skewered and grilled over live charcoal until deeply charred outside and yielding within, valued as much for the communal ritual of preparation as for the food itself.

A large smooth-pounded beef or lamb ball simmered gently in water or broth until firm, then served bathed in drawn or browned butter — the defining act of manual pounding, not grinding, being what separates it categorically from any ordinary meatball.

A large, paper-thin unleavened flatbread of flour and water, slapped onto the curved clay wall of a tonir pit-oven and baked in seconds at extreme radiant heat.

A thick, distinctly tangy fermented milk product made by culturing whole milk with a live heirloom starter — a thermophilic blend dominated by Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus — then draining whey until it reaches a dense, spoonable consistency.

Tiny hand-folded unleavened wheat-dough dumplings filled with raw spiced ground lamb and grated onion, boiled and finished — in the Turkish canon — with cold garlicky yogurt and a scalding drizzle of red-pepper browned butter, the three-temperature thermal stack being as definitive as the filling itself.

Tiny open-topped pinched wheat-dough boats filled with raw spiced ground beef or lamb, baked until the dough crisps and the meat browns, then served submerged in warm garlic-yogurt broth and finished with a paprika-butter drizzle.

Matsun is the traditional Armenian thermophilically fermented whole-milk yogurt, thick, sharply tangy, and set firm enough to hold a spoon upright, functioning simultaneously as a table condiment, cooking acid, marinade base, and the starter culture for the next batch.

A festive Armenian pilaf of long-grain rice cooked with butter-toasted vermicelli and served with simmered meat.

A Levantine staple of whole lentils and rice or bulgur cooked together until tender, crowned with a generous quantity of onions caramelized to deep mahogany sweetness — sometimes crisped to a frizzle.

A Caucasian layered pastry of thin dough sheets packed with ground walnuts or almonds, baked and saturated with honey or sugar syrup.

An Armenian soup of cultured yogurt (madzoon) thickened with wheat berries or grain and brightened with fresh herbs, served hot or chilled.

A dry-cured, heavily spiced beef sausage flavoured with cumin and fenugreek, pressed flat as it air-dries.

An Armenian salted drinking-yogurt beverage made by diluting yogurt (or matsoun) with water until thin and pourable, sometimes lightly carbonated.

Grape leaves or hollowed seasonal vegetables filled with a spiced raw mixture of ground lamb and rice, tightly wrapped and slow-simmered until the filling is fully cooked inside its edible vessel.

An Armenian Lenten meze of a spiced caramelized-onion-and-currant filling wrapped in a mashed chickpea-and-potato shell, dressed with tahini and spices.

A thin Armenian flatbread stuffed with a generous mix of finely chopped wild and garden herbs, sealed and dry-cooked on a griddle.