Taste of Armenia
One highlight was the koofta, aptly described as “meat stuffed with meat.” No turducken this, it’s a dense little hockey puck of lamb-on-lamb action. Despite its stripped-down look, koofta prep is a two-day ordeal: first some ground lamb is mashed with onion and spices, then left to firm for a day in the fridge. Next a springy outer shell is created with more lamb and bulgur, and a portion of lamb paste is injected into each shell. At the St. Vartan’s festival, one 97-year-old woman oversaw all koofta aesthetics, and by all accounts she was a tough customer.Next was the beoreg, phyllo dough (in a continental flair, the festival described the dough as “French puff pastry”) baked around lamb and onion paste or parsley and cheese. I danced a quiet jig when I saw this on the menu, as I've yet to find it anywhere in the Bay Area. Before I moved here, I used to smuggle a few slices of beoreg's Balkan cousin, burek, from New York in my suitcase.
Size chart is as follows; XSmall- Maltese/Bichon Frise; Small- Pomeranian/Norfolk Terrier; Medium- Jack Russel Terrier/Lhasa-Apso; Large- Cocker Spaniel/Irish Terrier; XLarge- Chow/Dalmation. If it gets extremely cold where you are, you may want the
Puzzled faces mostly, with heads tilted to the side like a cocker spaniel. If they care (or want to do a good job pretending), they'll try to place Armenia on the globe, then deduce the cuisine based on its neighbors. “Lots of onions? Lamb?
