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While I rarely participate in any of these competitions given my poor ability for working a camera and my lack of any ability for making my food look aesthetically pleasing, I still enjoy them for the ideas that they engender. Usually I will try out one or two things inspired by the challenge, but not bother posting about it because I just like to try the things out at my leisure. When this challenge came, as per the usual, it got me thinking. What food have I not TRIED to make. I’ve tried to make most of the food I really like. Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese, Mediterranean, Mexican. All have been attempted with varying levels of success (Vietnamese has turned out amazing, while quality Indian food still eludes me). I’ve even tried making Native American cuisine. Thus, most of the foods I haven’t ever attempted to make is food that I would never consider that appetizing, food that is just as bland and unexciting as the bleak and desolate lands which gives rise to it; Armenia. Why Armenia you ask? Why would I choose such a seemingly random and geo-politically insignificant country? Did I perhaps just randomly open a page in the Onion’s atlas and choose the country that it fell open to? While I kind of wish I had, I actually had a good reason for it; a friend who spent two years as a peace corps volunteer in eastern Armenia and who also thoroughly enjoys cooking.  This is the area in which my Peace Corps Friend (PCF) worked for two years. Never heard of it? Me either. Prior to undertaking this endeavor, my knowledge of Armenia was that a bunch of them were herded off and killed by the Turks roughly 90 years ago, and that they were part of the Soviet Union back when that was a thing. After a little bit of interweb research/searching wikipediea, I found that Armenia is an ancient state that derived from three Bronze Age tribes occupying the Armenian Steppe during the Bronze Age. It was the first country to officially adopt Christianity as its state religion back in AD 300, developing a church independent of both catholisicm and eastern orthodoxy. Although modern Armenians aren’t terribly religious (the USSR was a big fan of religion), much of their culture comes from a religious origin. Armenian culture shares a similar aesthetic to that of Russia, as is apparent in their architecture, dance, and dress. The music is a pleasant mix of melodies and rhythms I associate with Europe, but played on instruments that sound Middle Eastern or South Asian (modern Armenian music is just as generic as all pop music). And of course there’s the food! Armenian food is in some ways very similar to that of Turkey. There is emphasis on fresh and dried fruits and nuts, and some dishes commonly eaten in Armenia such as kabob, baklava, and pilafs are more commonly associated with other countries. The farther west you go in Armenia, the more ‘cosmopolitan’ the cuisine becomes with bright flavors and exciting spice blends. But PCF wasn’t in western Armenia. Nope, we’re going to be making eastern Armenian food, where spices and ingredients beyond the basic staples are rare. Oh joy! Khash and Lavash If you’re going to make a traditional Armenian dish, there’s really only choice if you’re opting for a faux cultural experience. You have to make Khash. Khash has a rich and elaborate tradition structured around it. It is eaten during winter in celebration, for calendar events such as Christmas or for the joy of your fellow countryman’s company and camaraderie. It’s typically eaten in the morning for breakfast after cooking all night. The dish takes 10 hours or more to prepare and participants in the celebration will often forgo dinner night before so that the experience of eating the Khash is augmented by hunger. Unfortunately, Armenia isn’t the most progressive of countries, and Khash is traditionally consumed only by men. This rule is relaxed in many of the cities and which are unsurprisingly less strict about these sorts of things, but PCF was out in the boonies. Thus, she was never afforded the opportunity to try it in during her time there, a tragedy that we could rectify. So it was decided. We would have a winter Khash celebration. We would make the dish plus a few others, invite people over, have great time going through the traditional practices and pretending we know what we are doing, and then submit our efforts to the internet for its judgment. But Fishes, you may ask, what IS Khash? Well, it’s a very simple dish with few ingredients. Here they are.  Cows feet and garlic. Lots of garlic. Boiled in water for 10 hours or more to render the… cartilage/tendon/whatever… off the bone. And this was also part of the appeal. Khash gave us a chance to expand our horizons, for better or worse, and try something we would never have considered otherwise. Tripe is commonly used in Khash as well. I’ve had it in menudo before though and didn’t much care for it. PCF said that they never added tripe to the khash in the village she lived, so we left it out. Obviously, Khash is a simple dish. You don’t add any spices to it, not even salt. Just clean those feet  Crush the garlic  Cover with water, bring to a boil, and then cover and simmer for an eternity. Normal soup rules apply, mostly skimming the crud off the top. As it cooks, the dish takes on a wonderfully deep and rich color and fills the entire kitchen with the smell of garlic. But man, you lift off that top and it releases this strange sweet and somewhat funky smell. Keep that lid on if you can!  (pictures go clockwise starting in the upper left corner) Once it’s done, remove the “fleshy bits” from the bone. I kept this one as a souvenir.  Khash isn’t to be eaten just as is though. It must be accompanied by Lavash, a basic flat bread consumed throughout the region. Lavash dries out very quickly and thus either needs to either be consumed right away or instead used as a crunchy garnish or cracker.  Lavash ingredients.(sugar on the left, flour on the right). Mix together to form dough. Since it’s an unleavened bread, there’s no need to be concerned about how you go about doing it. We made enough dough to form three Lavash sheets.  Real lavash is cooked on the walls of a clay oven. Since I had lent my traditional Armenian clay over to my sister, we were forced to improvise. Luckily, it seems that others on the internet have been left without their traditional clay ovens as well and we found some ideas as to how to best replicate the results. We went with an Alton Brown technique where the dough is stretched over the back of a sheet pan. PCF was much more adept at this than I, which is fortunate because I could then take pictures of her working!  Next through that dough in the oven. It doesn’t take long to cook, so I suggest keeping a close eye on it. We let ours get a little bit drier than you might want normally, since you need to be able to crumble it up to garnish the Khash.  Also, as you can probably tell, the oven didn’t regulate temperature very well (that upper left corner was always over cooked despite lowering the baking time and turning the pan halfway through). Lavash for Khash is usually plain, but you can season it if you want. The internet recommends sesame seeds. We went with salt, pepper, and rosemary for one of our sheets. Khash is typically accompanied with lightly pickled vegetables. PC friend remembered eating pickled cabbage while in Armenia, so we also made a pickled cabbage and carrots.  Nothing really surprising or fancy here.  I just wish I had better sense to make the dish more presentable when I took the picture.  Baklazan Since we were going to be having people over, we wanted to have some other food than the Khash in the so unlikely chance that they didn’t like it very much. PCF remembered eating a dish of a garlic and walnut mixture on top of sautéed eggplant, which sounded pretty drat good (and safe). Upon further research, we found it was called ‘baklazan’ in Armenia and could be prepared in a variety of ways, so long as it A) comprised a garlic and walnut mixture and B) was served with eggplant. We chose to mimic a recipe we found on a blog (http://www.homemadetoast.com/2010/1...lant-rolls.html) that added carrots and cilantro to the mix, the latter of which makes it a bit less traditional, but we felt like we were getting enough tradition from the Khash. In the end, you couldn’t really taste the cilantro anyway.  Chop up all those ingredients and toss them in a bowl…  …and mix, making sure to once again neglect any need to tidy things up prior to taking a picture.  Cook that eggplant  Fill it up. Then just get everything all set out and ready!  Celebrating with Khash The consumption of Khash is always accompanied by lots and lots of Vodka and three traditional toasts that the host must initiate.   PCF served as the toast master. The first toast is to the morning (remember that this is typically eaten for breakfast!), and is simply the statement of “Bari Luys” which translates literally to “good morning”. This toast is made before any food is eaten, and the khash is served after this toast is completed.      Yes, that is pizza on the end of the table. Our guests thought it might be necessary considering the nature of the meal. I didn’t have any part in it though. The Khash requires a bit of garnishing. As said above, you MUST crumble up dried lavash pieces into the broth, sometimes adding so much that it becomes more of a slurry than soup. I guess to be super traditional, Khash is consumed without any utensils, and I suppose this is the only way to get soup to your mouth without the use of a spoon. Since the soup also lacks any salt, you MUST add salt to it. I sincerely pity the person who neglects this. Other garnishes are optional, but may include actual meat, lemon, and in rare circumstances, other spices such as pepper. Here is my completed bowl, sitting precariously on the edge of the table!  During the meal there are two more toasts to be made, first to the host, or “for the people who put khash” and lastly to the guests or “the people who eat the khash”. There are said to be four stages that accompany the eating of Khash, though most of them can almost certainly be attributed more to drinking copious amounts of vodka in the morning. First is a heightening of senses and alertness that are stimulated by the pungent and garlicky smell of the khash. Second is a reduction in heart rate, supposedly due to the gelatinous nature of the broth which is supposed to congeal within your veins and arteries (delightful!). Tunnel vision comes next, where one can focus on nothing more than the khash and vodka, followed lastly by a dimming of the consciousness. I have to admit that I didn’t, nor did anyone else experience any of these sensations, probably because we didn’t drink enough vodka. We would make pretty poor Armenians. As food? This food was a lot of fun to make and I wish I could say it was equally fun to eat. It wasn’t! Khash just isn’t for me. It leaves a lot to be desired. I think the hardest thing for me to get over was the consistency of the broth. It was thick and oily and coated your mouth. The taste wasn’t too bad at first, but once you swallowed there was this distinct ‘foot’ flavor that would just linger on your palate. I think that the vodka is specifically needed to clean this taste away. I’m also just not a fan of the foot ‘meat’ either. It’s pretty much just feels like chewing on a big old hunk of boiled fat, which I suppose is what it essentially is. Everything else was delightful though! The lavash was simple and served as a nice neutral palate cleanser when eaten plain with salt, and made a great snack when seasoned. The lightly pickled vegetables were tasty if not that exciting or unique and offered a nice acidic tone to the meal. The best was undoubtedly the baklazan though! I could eat that every day for the foreseeable future. It was oily and rich and salty and deep. The garlic and walnut paired so well together and the sweetness of the carrots really brought it all together. I didn't go back for seconds of khash, but I had thirds of baklazan. And that’s it for my Armenian culinary adventure! I can’t write conclusions to save my life, so I’m just going to stop!
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 20:21 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 12:50 |
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I suspect that the issue is that you had not enough lavash in there. It's supposed to get thick enough to be able to scoop up the stuff with more lavash. I'd imagine the experience would have been easier that way? It's cool that you branched out and tried something totally different though!
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 20:46 |
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Eastern European food in general is something I love a lot, even though I am not a huge fan of fat/cream in general, whereas stuff like sour cream seems to show up in every sort of Eastern European dish somehow. So when I turned into a vegan I had to give pretty much all that stuff up, which means I'll probably never get to try baklazan. It looks good though! As does the lavash and the kash. Foot soup sounds... about as good as foot. So I imagine anyone who likes foot would be all over it. It's hard to argue with foot, garlic, salt, and lavash if you're a fan of foot. And vodka.
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 22:42 |
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I saw the thread title and was hoping against hope for Khash. You did not disappoint!
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 13:31 |
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But no crab juice? Nicely done.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 14:06 |
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dino. posted:I suspect that the issue is that you had not enough lavash in there. It's supposed to get thick enough to be able to scoop up the stuff with more lavash. I'd imagine the experience would have been easier that way? It's cool that you branched out and tried something totally different though! I think you are probably correct. That definitely would have helped cut down the oilyness of it all and provided some other, more substantial textures to mix with the chewy bits. I still don't think there's anything to be done about the taste though. I also think I may have been a little too negative sounding in the original post. It wasn't terrible or anything, just unpleasant. I wanted to try it and see what it tastes like. Now that I've done that I doubt I'll be eating it again, but I'm very glad for the experience! quote:So when I turned into a vegan I had to give pretty much all that stuff up, which means I'll probably never get to try baklazan. I bet there are some ways to make a decent vegan substitute. One thing I actually wish was that our baklazan was more nutty and a little less creamy. I think the cream is used more as a binder than anything else, and maybe that amazing home made tahini from your entry could fit that bill?
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 14:07 |
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What the gently caress, you made khash?! Wow. Yeah, you add shitloads of garlic, vinegar and red pepper flakes to make it palatable. Next time try some khorovadz for a more...accessible dish, delicious pork kebabs :d Also nobody in their right mind makes their own lavash without being an Armenian grandmother. That stuff is hard to get right.
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| # ? Mar 5, 2013 02:11 |
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Cool stuff! I never even considered Armenia for my entry, but I certainly haven't cooked anything Armenian in the past as far as I know. Eastern Europe is pretty meat-centric but I'm sure I could find some interesting side dishes or something.
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| # ? Mar 5, 2013 04:09 |
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This is a pretty awesome entry. I approve.
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| # ? Mar 5, 2013 20:59 |
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Armenia isn't really Eastern Europe, it's the Caucasus, whereas for the cuisine it's heavily Middle Eastern in its influences. Think hummus, lahmaçun and so on. Check out Georgian cuisine if you're adventurous, it's very characteristic and heavily uses herbs and spices in contrast with the lighter Armenian cuisine.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2013 06:36 |
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Sjurygg posted:Armenia isn't really Eastern Europe, it's the Caucasus, whereas for the cuisine it's heavily Middle Eastern in its influences. Think hummus, lahmaçun and so on. Check out Georgian cuisine if you're adventurous, it's very characteristic and heavily uses herbs and spices in contrast with the lighter Armenian cuisine. This is true! I'm a poor anthropologist. After consulting further with my friend who actually went there, I was a little off about some of the culture too. To my ignorant eye the dress, dance, and architecture seemed similar to that of eastern Europe (or at least that's what I would have said if someone had given me a picture of these things and asked me to place them geographically), but they are in fact much more appropriately analogous to the surrounding areas just as you said. I think I reached my ill informed conclusions because I'm a bit ignorant about this part of the globe, associate former USSR countries with eastern Europe, and didn't find anything in my limited research that explicitly stated otherwise. Thank for helping clearing that all up and setting me on the right course! Aside from foot soup, I did really like what we made, so I'll definitely be looking to some of your suggestions to try in the future. Fishes_Swim fucked around with this message at Mar 6, 2013 around 19:31 |
| # ? Mar 6, 2013 19:26 |
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This was really interesting—I don't think I'd like khash either, but I'd definitely try it. A very garlicky simple soup sounds really good to me right now—is there another traditional recipe similar to this that doesn't taste like feet?
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| # ? Mar 8, 2013 02:53 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 12:50 |
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Garlic soup is a Thing. It's easy and pretty loving good. http://fxcuisine.com/Default.asp?la...resolution=high
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| # ? Mar 8, 2013 11:03 |
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