1997_12 The Daily Collegian December 1997

              December 1997
Hye Sharzhoom
Armenian Cooking and Family Ties
Matthew Maroot
Staff Writer
Yalanchi, Kufta, Paklava
Armenians we are
all familiar with
these culinary de¬
lights, however, not
too many college
students spend as
much time prepar¬
ing these dishes as
they do enjoying
them:
But this was not
the case on the
weekend of October
17th and 18th. 1997
as a group of 20 stu¬
dents gathered to
take part in Arme¬
nian Studies 120T:
Armenian Cooking.
Someone passing through the
Family & Food Sciences Building
who caught the delightful scents
wafting into the hallway probably
would have never guessed that a
group of CSUF students were re¬
sponsible for such creations. Un¬
der the instruction of Professor
Barlow Der Mugrdechian and Mrs.
Norma Der Mugrdechian, students
had an excellent opportunity to
hone their kitchen skills in time for
the holiday season.
Armenian cooking class
preparing to eat their dinner.
While the weekend consisted
-largely of the preparation of vari¬
ous Armenian dishes. Professor Der
Mugrdechian also included a dis¬
cussion on the history and tradition
that go along with these delicacies.
It is no secret that Armenians have
enjoyed their traditional foods for
centuries, indeed, food has long
been an important part of the Ar¬
menian culture. In die 5th Century
B C, the Greek historian Xenophon
included in
his work Ana¬
basis, a de¬
scription of
the abun¬
dance of food
he encoun¬
tered during
his travels
through Ar-
menia. As
well, even
the 8th Cen¬
tury AD. Ar¬
menian Folk
hero David
of Sassoun
grew- strong
on healthy servings of Herisah.
Beginning with Chorag on Fri¬
day evening, students dove right
into the art of Armenian cooking.
By the end of the night they had
successfully made and quickly con¬
sumed Valley Wraps. Cheese
Borag. Kurabia and Yalanchi. Sat¬
urday morning brought the oppor¬
tunity to make Kadaif, Kufta,
Dolma, Pilaf, Tabbuli and Bourma.
Many students felt more comfort¬
able rolling Yalanchi and Bourma
away from the watchful eye of their
grandmothers. Some students had
more Armenian food in the course
of these two days than they will
have all year. But no one was
complaining.
In fact meal¬
time seemed to
be the quietest
time of all
throughout the
weekend.
While the
preparation of
these tradi¬
tional Arme¬
nian dishes was
the primary fo-
Armenian Traditions and Food'
By Michael Kazarian
As an assignment for Armenian
Studies 12UT-Armenian Cooking
Most people in the world,
who have been exposed
to an Armenian commu¬
nity or are themselves Armenian,
know that food is a very central part
of the Armenian culture and tradi¬
tion. My family is typical of the
"traditional" Armenian family
whose home life revolves around
food—the preparation of food, and
the family coming together to share
a meal.
On a daily basis I eat the deli¬
cious ethnic foods of my heritage.
Many of the common dishes con¬
sumed by Armenians everyday are
not known to exist by people out¬
side the Armenian community.
Armenians like any nationality or
ethnic group, whose recipes date
back thousands of years, depend on
their religious holidays and season
of the year to perpetuate their cul¬
ture through food. Perhaps the
reason traditional recipes evolved
is because centuries ago man did
not have the ability to ship fruits
and vegetables around the world,
therefore, certain foods could only
be made seasonally.
Rojeeg is an Armenian dessert
that is made in the fall season. This
is because Rojeeg is make with
walnuts and grape juice and die
walnuts come into season around
October. The Muscat grape is used
for making Rojeeg. Muscats come
into season in mid September and
are still good by the time walnuts
are ready to harvest. The reason
why Muscat juice is-preferred in
the making of Rojeeg is because
the Muscat is very sweet with a
high sugar content. The prepara¬
tion and making of Rojeeg is a very
long and tedious process. First, the
grapes are juiced and the syrup is
made in a large barrel or vat. Sec¬
ond, the walnuts are carefully
shelled. Special care is taken not to
break die walnut meal. Once the
walnuts are shelled, a long string
with needle on one end is used to
string the walnuts, which end up
resembling a walnut necklace. Each
string <flf walnuts should be about
twelve inches long. At die top of
each string a hook is placed so that
it may be hung to dry during die
dipping process. The dipping pro¬
cess takes a great deal of time be¬
cause when the walnut strings are
completed they are dipped* in the
juice vat and each dip must dry
eorflprelely belbftuuewalinut neck¬
lace can be dipped again. The
dipping process is coating the wal¬
nuts with the sweet grape juice.
This process of dipping and drying
is done a number of times, until the
walnut necklace looks like a long
sausage. Once these sausage-like
strings, known as jots(in Arme¬
nian) have dried they are rolled in
powdered sugar. The traditional"'
way to serve Rojeeg is to cut diem
up like cucumber rings and set them
on the holiday table for a sweet
treat. Rojeeg can be found on the
table of many Armenian homes
'during die fall and winter holidays.
There are many "special" holi¬
day foods Armenians prepare and
enjoy. During the Easter holiday
many dishes are made which are
ndt normally made any other time
of the yeaf. Due to the Armenian
belief and observation of Lent,
many give up eating meat for the
forty-day period. One popular food
during the period of Lent is vospov
kheyma. Kheyma is a dish that
consists of ground meat bulgur
and seasoning. During the obser-
made food such an integral part of
the Armenian culture. From grape
leave-picking outings to Dolma-
stuffing gatherings, Armenians
(particularly Armenian women)
have kept these customs alive and
have kept us well fed.
Everyone who was enrolled in
this exciting course had the oppor
cus of this
Preparing choose borag
course. Professor Der Mugrdechian
and Mrs. Norma Der Mugrdechian
did an excellent job of providing
extensive background knowledge
on all of the recipes prepared
throughout the course. They pre¬
sented us with a tremendous in¬
sight into die traditions that have
tunny to gain hands-on experience
in the preparation of Armenian reci¬
pes. Those in attendance would
agree, this fun and food-filled
course presented students with the
tastiest unit they will ever earn here
at California Slate University.
Fresno.
vation of Lent the ground meal, m
this dish, is substituted with lentil
beans or vosp. in Armenian. Per¬
sonally 1 do not care for vospov
kheyma as much, as beef kheyma.
Armenians also bring enter-,
taining pastimes into their tradi¬
tional dishes. Just like die Ameri¬
can tradition of boiling and color¬
ing Easter eggs. Armenians also
have this tradition. The Easter
eggs are called Garmeer havgeed
(in Armenian) which means "red
eggs". The eggs have this name
because die shells are dyed dark
red. The peels of die purple onion
are boiled with die eggs resulting
in die eggshell turning a dark red
color and hard boiling the eggs.
Before the eggs are eaten, it is the
tradition to have an egg fight. This
is not the type of fight that may
come to mind, with eggs being
thrown at everyone. The way you
egg fight is that one person holds
his or her. egg while the other per¬
son tries to break it by hittinjz it
with his egg. In the years past
churches put on egg fights at Eas¬
ter lime and the festivities were
enjoyed by all. My grandfather
told me stories of people sucking
out die egg filling with a needle
and injecting it with epoxy, so that
no/rrfatter what their egg was hit
with, it would not crack.
These recipes are only a few
of the seasonal and traditional foods
that Armenians have and they rep¬
resent my families personal favor¬
ites. The Armenian people are a
very old culture and have main¬
tained their sense of family, heri¬
tage and traditions through very
adverse times in history. I believe
much of die Armenian culture is
passed down from generation to
generation through die traditions
associated with food.
Armenian Recipes
Tourshee
Cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, and celery
2 quarts water
1 quart vinegar
l/4cup«gar
2/3 capsalt
gariic cloves, pickling spice, 2-3 nd hot chili peppers
prepare in gallon jars—boil sohition, add to layeied vegetabka In jar-
packintight
Dolma
1 pound ground sirioin
273cap«fce
2 tablespoons Un^tolgor
fapn^prftesalUd**ofarkp*
. i*naucaaoribin»»*w^
small eta trfwa^^
cooked.
Rmtiit&cmmjiHbmlmifx Jm*m$Amfmmmm. .  .
Easy Braided Cheoreg
Mi* togfc&er&«** Jto;jtfca#bOi tat.1/2 T; Sev
Mix tocher; 2i*f.Yea*. M cap w«m wtter^jidd toflw*.
AddfkarxniidwteIc^|»«pwMv!    '   '
-
W£*Mi&*?.
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v- 7,'r