Food & Drink

Throughout history, Armenian cuisine has had cultural exchange with the cuisines of neighbouring countries, such as Greece, Russia, Turkey and the Middle East. Armenian cuisine typically consists of hors d'oeuvres of peppers, stuffed vine leaves and vegetables followed by lamb served as kebabs with flat bread or prepared as soup (wabash). Barbecue is also very popular in Armenia, and is the primary choice of main courses in most restaurants.

Some typical dishes include the following:

Appetizers

• Boeregs - savoury pies made with phyllo pastry and stuffed with cheese.
• Hummus - smooth chickpea paste.
• Sarma - cabbage leaf roll filled with meat, rice and onions.

Salads

• Eetch - bulgur salad.
• Fattoush - pita bread salad.
• Tabouleh - wheat and mint salad.

Bread

• Choreg - a sweet breakfast bread, often rolled into a thin layer, rolled up and eaten by unpeeling the layers.
• Lahmajoun - soft flatbread topped with mincemeat.
• Lavash - soft, thin flatbread.
• Khachapouri - soft puffy bread filled with cheese.
• Matnakash - soft and puffy bread.

Main Courses

• Fasulya - a stew made with green beans, lamb and tomato broth or other ingredients.
• Ghapama - pumpkin stew.
• Kefte/Koufte - fried or boiled dumplings consisting of spiced ground beef (sometimes with pine nuts) surrounded with a thin shell of bulgur and meat.
• Lahmajoun - soft flatbread topped with mince meat (usually beef, sometimes lamb), tomatoes and onions.
• Moussaka - baked dish consisting of spiced lamb and aubergine.
• Mujaddara - cooked lentils and rice.
• Plav - fried rice.
• Tjvjik --fried liver and kidney with onions.
• Tolma - spiced rice and meat wrapped in vine leaves or stuffed in squash or peppers.
• Manti - boiled, steamed or baked marble sized dumplings, often served with yogurt sauce.
• Sarma - cabbage leaf roll filled with meat, rice and onions.
• Bastourma - highly seasoned, air-dried cured beef.
• Soujoukh - dry, spicy beef sausage.
• Yershig - smaller, spiced pork sausage.

Desserts

• Pakhlava - sweet phyllo pastry filled with pistachio paste and covered in honey.
• Burek - savoury phyllo pastry filled with meat, cheese or vegetables.
• Gata - sweet bread.
• Ghataif - phyllo pastry.
• Halva - ground and compacted sesame sweetened with honey.

Drinks

• Armenian coffee - strong black coffee, finely ground, sometimes sweet.
• Kefir - fermented milk drink.
• Kvas - sweet, fermented bread drink.
• Tahn - yoghurt drink.

Armenian brandy also has a good reputation. Coffee is served strong and black in small cups.