Aveluk is a traditional Armenian meal. Aveluk is a beautiful plant. The leaves are wide and dark. It grows in all the regions of Armenia. It is rich with vitamins. With dried aveluk, the Armenian people make meals and salads. The first time I ate aveluk at my grandmother’s place and I liked it very much. In summer, my grandmother collects aveluk and then braids and dries it up. I saw how she made the dinner and the salad. When it was boiling the nice smell spread through the kitchen.

Before boiling, the dried aveluk is put into warm water; then it is cleaned, washed, chopped and cooked. After boiling it is taken out from the water. Then chopped onion, pepper, salt and vinegar are added, and the salad is then ready. For dinner, bulgur, stewed onions, salt and garlic are added. Aveluk is also fried. Aveluk isn’t only a meal. It also has healing importance. Aveluk has a lot of medicinal qualities. The boiled root cleans the gall-bladder and stomach.

If aveluk is boiled with wine it stops pain in the spleen. The juice of aveluk stops toothache. Aveluk also regulates blood circulation. We often use aveluk - both as food and as medicine. If anybody has not used aveluk, let them use it! It is very useful and delicious. We ought to keep on using our Armenian meals, the meals which were used by our ancestors, and are used by us, with great pleasure.

Today is a very important day for me, as I have invited my friend to our place to taste soup with bulgur and mutton - made by myself! This meal is one of my family’s traditional meals and it is very healthy because it contains numerous vitamins. This meal entered our family by accident. I was ill and there was no hope that I would recover. But my doctor said if I ate soup with bulgur and mutton, twice a day, then I should recover quickly.

And he wasn’t mistaken. Following his advice, I soon felt better. But I must say that I went far from my story, so let’s go to our kitchen where I am making the soup with my mother’s help. First, I put chopped mutton brisket into water and cook it untill it is half-ready. Then I take out the meat, sieve the broth and fry onions in the fat, with tomato paste. I add the meat, the broth and the bulgur all together and cook for 20-30 minutes. Then I add salt, pepper, chopped potatoes and cook it untill it’s ready.

So, everything is ready. I’m about to serve my guest. Of course, before serving I don’t forget to add chopped dill. Its young leaves are used as a spice in various Armenian meals. My friend liked the soup with bulgur and mutton very much. Being touched by her praise, I even forgot to say that I had made it with my mother’s help. However, my guest was glad as my mother allowed us to go for a walk to the nearest park. I was so glad; I was about to jump for joy as I like to go for walks, especially when spring has come.

We are already walking along the alley and telling each other various stories. But we can’t help admiring the beauty and tenderness of spring. The air is full of the delightful scent of sweet-smelling flowers. Birds are chirping beautifully around us, filling the surroundings with heavenly tunes. We are walking along the alley and can’t help looking at blossoms on trees. The shining stars soon appeared too, around Mother Moon, bringing to completeness the beautiful scenery.

It’s as if the stars are approaching us from the very depth of space, to inform us of the coming spring. It was a heavenly scene and we didn’t notice how fast the hours flew by. We soon had to return home as it was very late. Maybe all live such unforgettable and pleasant moments as we lived on that wonderful spring day.

Lavash is our national bread in Armenia, which is made from wheat flour. Wheat is one of the ancient plants. The area of Armenia is considered to one of the world’s most ancient centers for cultivating wheat. It is proved by the different species of wheat found in Armenia. Lavash is baked in an ancient stove, called a ‘tonir’. The tonir’s work closet is cylindrical, the diameter of which is 1-1.6 meters and the height is 1.1-1.7 meters. A special hole is dug on the floor of the tonir, through which air is supplied while the tonir is burning.

When the wood has burnt completely that hole is closed. It keeps heat in the tonir. My grandmother always bakes lavash and I go to her place every holiday, to taste the lavash baked by her. My grandmother lives in the village of Mantash. Mantash is situated at the foot of mount Aragats, 2000 meters above sea level. There are a lot of alpine meadows where we go very often and taste the delicious lavash baked by my grandmother. Once we treated archeologists, who were digging in the surroundings of the village, with lavash.

They confessed that they had never eaten such delicious bread. We told them that baking of that tasty bread was very hard and we told them how my grandmother prepared lavash. My grandmother first takes the wheat to the mill, to get wheat flour. Then she sieves the wheat flour, mixes salt, yeast and lukewarm water and then makes the dough for the bread. The dough is left for 1.5 to 2 hours in 30-35 degress Celcius. The dough is then divided into many round balls, weighing 400-500 grams, and then left for about 15 minutes.

Afterwards she rolls the balls with a wooden rolling pin and she makes oval shapes. She spreads one on the pillow. The shaped dough is baked by putting it on the tonir’s inside wall. After about 5 minutes the ready lavash is picked from the tonir’s wall. The first lavash always falls on the ash. My grandmother puts fresh cheese and some green grass into the basket. Then we take the basket and go to the field to enjoy the brdughes (rolled), made with fresh lavash.

Divide the dough into four balls and put a coin inside one of them. That one is only to be eaten by members of the family.

Armenian Gata has a history of centuries and we have kept that tradition up to now. Every year, on 6 January, Armenians celebrate Christmas Day and Revelations Day. On that day each Armenian family puts on their table fish, pilaf with rice and raisins, wine and the most important thing, which is gata. Before making the gata they put a coin inside the dough and when it is ready all the members of the family gather around the table. The eldest in the family gives gata to all the members of the family, and one piece to the fireplace.

That year will be a year of success and fulfilled dreams for the one whose piece of gata contains the coin. All the Armenians like this celebration and celebrate it with great enthusiasm. Our family is not an exception: we look forward to that celebration! I will tell you about an event connected with this holiday. Last year the coin fell into my piece of gata. I was so happy that I kept that coin for a long time. I was waiting to see what would happen this year to make it an indelible time in my life.

I was lucky to have a rest in the "Tesilk" camp, which is situated in the Lori’s heaven world with the staff of the studio at the head of Jora Barseghyan. That was the happiest year in my life. It will remain in my memories forever. It was an agreeable corner under the tents, where there was no city noise and dust. It was a heavenly place.

I like Armenian national dishes, especially hot meat dishes. My granny says that one must have seven kinds of dishes on the New Year’s table. She particularly marks meat dishes. She has made a rule and teaches us how to keep the natural state of the meat and use a lot of seasoning. On the New Year’s table she puts a respected dish, called Khorvu. Now I’ll describe to you how to cook it. It is made by experienced men or women.

A whole mutton is prepared well, salted and seasoned with red pepper and other spices and then hung over a tonir (a cylindrical type of oven, made of clay and dug in the ground). The tonir is to have been well heated before. Under the hung mutton, put a big, iron pan with cooked wheat bulgur inside. The juice from the mutton then drops into the pan making a very tasty pilaff. It is done in the evening. Then the tonir is covered with some fur. The mutton is to be slowly cooked in the steam the whole night, until it becomes Khorvu.

It is then separated into smaller parts before serving. The cooked bulgur is put next to the mutton and served. The mutton may also be stuffed with bulgur and then hung. Previously, rice or bulgur is cooked in salt water, strained and mixed with nuts, sultanas and then put inside the mutton. A pan with water is put under the mutton so that the steam helps cook it. It is typical for Armenian kitchens to use natural food and spices, which are mostly gathered from fields and mountains nearby.

Hello, I’m Hayk. I live in the town of Abovyan, in the Kotayk region of Armenia. I’m 14. Armenians have many dishes. Now I’ll tell you about Tanapur, which we had at dinner today. Until it was ready, we played ‘7 stones’ in the yard. Today we were lucky to win. I got home tired and I tried to help my mother to make dinner. I took an egg, but it fell and broke. I took another one, broke it on a plate and began to beat it. Then I took matsun, a yoghurt (not sweet) that we bought from the shop.

Of course that is a bit different from village matsun. Matsun is . made from milk by adding some special ferment and keeping it in appropriate conditions. I added matsun to the egg, added some bulgur (wheat), flour water, some special mint and fried onions, which I had previously made with melted butter. Tanapur must be stirred permanently until it is ready (when it begins to boil). The word "Tanapur" comes from the word "tan", meaning matsun mixed with water. The most delicious is tan made in a churn. Matsun is poured in it and water is then added and churned, so as to separate butter from the tan. Though Tanapur is cooked very easily and quickly, it is the most delicious dish for me. I hope you’ll like it too.

Make stewed onion with butter and onions. Crumble lavash, pour some lukewarm water on it and let it stand a little. Then strain the water and chop cheese on it. Add the stewed onions. People in Armenia are very hospitable. Bread is holiness for the Armenians. When the Armenians invite their guests to their houses they say: "Let’s share bread together". That means, let’s share a meal. Now I want to tell you about two important elements of the Cheese-Khash recipe.

"Lavash" is Armenian sliced bread, which is connected with a lot of traditions and talks. People who first taste lavash say it is the most delicious bread in the world. The thread-cheese is made from shitchuk (the remained liquid after cheese is made), which is made from milk after separating cheese. Shitchuk is boiled over fire. Grandmothers’ experienced fingers braid thread-cheese with those threads. That cheese looks like a thread-ball. That’s why it is called thread-cheese.

Now the braided cheese is wrapped into a clean white towel. To remove the remaining liquid we put a heavy object on it. After some days we put it into salty water. Leave it for several hours and then take it out of water.

I like winter with its white snow, as soft as my Granny’s hands. Snow is an airy poem leaked from the blue sky which brings heady memories and dreams to my young soul. The dance of white flakes immediately makes nature alive, magnificent and perfect. Has God created this soul-stirring beauty? I believe God has braided a bright Laudation of love, nature and space to show guilty man that life is a heavenly prize awarded to man.

The bearers of this sacrament are my Grandparents - bright and kind, human and God-fearing, life-loving and much suffered. I remember studying sadly my grandfather’s quiet face on which the years have mercilessly made deep wrinkles in which so much light and smiles are mixed. He used to work almost all the year. My grandparents lived in peace with fate and were pleased with it. They lived all their lives sowing love and have been paid back thoroughly.

For me, real treats were winter evenings when we all young and old gathered at our traditional table. My grandfather sat at one end of the table and the other family members took there usual places. The cheerfully crackling of the fire was heard. My grandparents’ house was warm, like the reddened side of the hearth. Our childish, pure souls were moving from the heat. The village "Krchik" was boiling on the hearth. When my Granny took the ladle and opened the lid of the cast-iron jug the nice and sour smell caught the house.

My grandmother had learned to cook this dish from her mother, and the latter from her mother. My grandmother’s worn-out hands took, from another jug, the "ghavurma" (fried beef with a lot of melted butter). Its smell drove us mad. Having taken soft pieces of lavash (finely sliced baked bread) we stood in a queue to taste ghavurma. In winter the melted butter froze and my Granny took it out of the jug with difficulty. She added some chopped, pickled cabbage, previously having put it into water to let salt come out.

Then she added chopped potatoes to it all, and finally white wheat, which she had made herself. I have never breathed a nicer smell than the smell of cooked wheat. The oil for "Krtchik" must be a lot and it must be cooked until the ingredients are well mixed. In the end, dried basil necessarily added. When "Krtchik" was ready we took our seats. Spoons began to jingle. My Grandpa told my uncle to bring "machar". It’s a juice extracted from black and white grapes - a holy union of the soil, water and the sun mixed with drops of my Grandpa’s fair sweat.

That life-giving syrup my Grandpa sealed with wax in a clay pot, and buried it in the soil in the grape garden. When the mugs were red with machar we were cheered at dinner-table. Then cheeks of the daughters, daughters-in-law and the grandchildren became red. It is winter again, but my Grandpa is gone. He went to join eternity. He gave us the light and endless kindness of his soul. As if a world died with him, he is alive and lives in our memories. My Granny has cooked "Krchik" again, and we are at table again with our Grandpa’s bright wine. "Krtchik" smells so good, filling our souls with sweet memories.

The history of this meal I have heard from my grandmother. Harisa is so appreciated among the Musalertsies (people who fought for their freedom on Mount Musa) that it is served as a requiem meal to commemorate the victims of Mount Musa’s heroic battle.

The Musalertsies later settled in the district of Armavir, in a village called Mount Musa. Every year, on the third Sunday of September, a fete is organized and people make Harisa from mutton and bulgur (wheat). Armenians gather in the village of Mount Musa from the most distant places and from every corner of the world to be served Harisa. On that day all the people enjoy the immortal Harisa and pay tribute and respect, commemorating all the victims.

To make this meal they pour several kilograms of bulgur into a copper pot. Then they put a whole sheep into it, pour water to the top of the pot and put it on the hearth. In the first, foundation year of the village people take 40 pots, and every year the number of pots increases by one. A woman and a man stand at each pot and watch for the duration of the cooking of Harisa. Harisa is cooked for 12 hours! On the 17th of September, 2002, my father and I went to Mount Musa and took part in the fete. 70 Pots were put on hearths! In the afternoon a special delegation of Bishops of all Armenians came and blessed the Harisa.

The dinner party was accompanied with songs and dances, with the sounds of the traditional zurna (an Armenian national musical instrument) and children of my age were reciting. The old Musalertsies acted-out those black, but heroic, 40 days of their famous defense. The Musalrtsies’ ancestors amazed me and, following my teacher’s advice, I read a passage from the novel "Forty days of Mount Musa" by F. Verfell. I was proud of my heroic nation, and I am proud of being an Armenian.

My mother cooks the same dish in little portions at home on Sundays, and on holidays, with poultry. We enjoy having this meal, having reached us traditioonally from our ancestors.

This is an old Armenian dish: it has been used from ancient times up to the present day. In old times it was used during church fasts (fast means "pass", hence passuts), when people didn’t eat food of animal origin. They could eat vegetable dishes, bulgur (wheat) and vegetable oil, both of which were very healthy and easily digested. Passuts Dolma has been so respected and loved that people have begun to cook it not only during church fasts, but also on holidays and whenever they like. I always beg my mother to cook it because I’m crazy about it. Although she is really too busy she agrees to do it. I must say that it is not an easy task.

It demands both patience and a lot of time. She soaks peas, green beans, bulgur and lentils in order to have them cooked easily. Each of the above-mentioned ingredients must be cooked separately, in salt water, and then strained properly. You can take them almost in equal proportions. Bulgur can be a little more than the others. When my mother is frying a lot of chopped onions in vegetable oil I always manage to steal boiled peas — they’re so tasty! Then my mother mixes them, noticing that some of the peas have disappeared. "Where are the peas?" she asks, looking at me tenderly.

She adds red and black pepper, spices and a lot of green grass. Then she takes cabbage (pickled is more preferable and more delicious) and puts it into hot water to soften it. Then she wraps small amounts of the bulk in the leaves of the softened cabbage and lays them out in a pan. On top she puts some laurel leaves and then fills the pan with vegetable oil, tomato sauce, water and salt. She covers the pan with its lid and then puts the pan on a slow fire. The hardest part is that I must restrain myself until Passuts Dolma is ready!