Gourmet stopover in the Armenian capital
In 2021, the magazine Forbes considered that Armenia was THE new gastronomic and oenological destination. To get a glimpse of the culinary richness offered by this mountainous territory, located along the ancient Silk Road, at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, head to the capital, Yerevan.
Consisting of vegetables and fruits, meat, herbs and spices, Armenian cuisine is colorful and tantalizing. “Since I no longer live here,” an Armenian woman who has been living abroad for several years tells me, “I find it difficult to eat dishes that have as many flavors as in Armenia.”
A range of flavors
And to get an overview of the tastes found in Armenian cuisine, it is essential to start your visit to the very colorful covered market of Yerevan, better known as GUM.
On the stalls, fruits and vegetables rub shoulders with cheeses and cold meats. You must also try the emblematic basturma, which is a kind of local sausage, made from dried raw beef. But what most piques our curiosity upon entering the market are the analysis. These sun-dried fruits have a heart filled with a mixture of crushed nuts, iodine and cinnamon. “It takes about an hour to make five or six pieces,” a merchant who sells the family farm’s produce every day at the market tells me. It’s also impossible not to succumb to a bite of sojouk sweet that he hands us, a sausage-shaped treat made from nuts coated in syrup.
Continuing our tour of the place, we come face to face with these large displays of lavashthis Armenian bread that looks like a pita, made of flour, water and salt. “Although there are still recipes cooked in the traditional way in a wood fire in a tandoor oven,” a saleswoman explains to me lavash At the market, this bread is now often prepared in an electric oven.” Registered as an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO since 2014, it serves as the basis for several specialties of Armenian cuisine.
It is very close to the opera, in the Tun Lahmajo restaurant that we will taste one of the favorite dishes of the Armenians, nicknamed the “Armenian pizza”. The lahmajo is made of bread lavash topped with ground beef, parsley and tomatoes. Prepared and cooked as you go in the bread oven in the entrance of the establishment, it is presented with a lemon wedge that is squeezed on its “pizza”. It is then rolled up to be eaten with the fingers. A delight.
And if you’re short on time (or penniless), there’s nothing like jengyalov hatswhich can be found in the restaurant of the same name. As soon as you sit down and without even ordering, you receive from the waitress a plate filled with chopped green vegetables rolled in bread lavash. This dish originates from Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), a former Armenian enclave that was predominantly populated by Armenians until the Azerbaijani offensive last September. It is accompanied by tana typical Armenian drink composed of water, salt and matzoun (Armenian yogurt).
For more elaborate cuisine, head to Lavash restaurant, a well-known place among Yerevan residents, located in one of the most central districts of the capital. Created in 2017 based on the farm-to-table concept, it offers products mainly from local agriculture. On the menu, in addition to the classics khorovats (Armenian grills), we find tolmas, made with a stuffing made from ground beef and rice, wrapped in vine leaves. You can also taste one of the Armenians’ favorite daily dishes, harissa. Made from ground wheat and shredded meat, it is often served with butter. “It has to cook all night,” explains Margarita Gaboyan, an Armenian I met during my stay. If prepared well, every bite melts in your mouth. »
The capital’s gastronomy reflects its population. Since 2011, many Armenians from the diaspora have fled the war in Syria, coming to settle in the land of their ancestors. Among them, several have opened establishments where you can taste their cuisine with touches of the Middle East.
At the Anteb restaurant, one of the most famous for Western Armenian cuisine, we savor the famous mantia kind of ravioli filled with a mixture of meat, garlic, onions, spices and herbs. Here they are served as a soup with chicken broth, a spoonful of matzoun and sumac on top.
Don’t worry, sweet tooths won’t be left out in the Armenian capital either. Direction the Kond, one of the oldest districts of the city, preserved since the 17th centurye century, to enjoy a coffee accompanied by a pastry made with flour, butter and sugar: the cat. “We decided to open a café on the ground floor of our house,” the daughter of the owners of one of the few establishments in the area, Kond st 253, told me. “Several visitors wanted to drink coffee and eat something. cat authentically in the neighborhood. »
“You absolutely have to taste the ponchiki “, I am assured. And for that, head to the colorful café, the Grand Candy Ponchikanots. This dessert, very popular during the Soviet era, is somewhere between pancakes and doughnuts. Filled with vanilla, chocolate, caramel or apricot jam, they are so soft that you can devour them without feeling hungry.
To eat… and to drink
A few years ago, archaeologists discovered the oldest known wine factory, dating back 6,100 years, in a cave in Armenia. Since then, the wine tradition has continued. So even if Armenia can be tasted… it can also be drunk.
You can get an idea of the Armenian wine wealth if you take a walk towards Martiros Saryan Street, where there are many wine bars. At In Vino, which, in addition to being a bar, is also a store and a club for wine lovers: there are more than 2000 of them, of which about sixty are Armenian.