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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2011
The Armenian version of porridge is always just right.
(And it's definitely ours!)
http://www.thearmeniankitchen.com/2011/12/armenian-version-of-porridge-is-always.html
From YouTube: Turkish villagers make keshkeg
We've stated early and often that we're food fanciers not food
historians, so we've tried to steer clear of claims that any dish is
uniquely Armenian.
Our premise when we began this blog was to embrace as Armenian food
anything that Armenians eat.
In my case, of course, that would include hot fudge sundaes - although, it
really shouldn't, for a number of reasons. The lesson is that some things
aren't so easy to define or to avoid.
But identity politics is a powerful thing, and it's clear that Armenians
must define their food or others will define it for us.
There's been a clear and ominous trend in recent years among our
not-always-friendly neighbors to label certain dishes as Turkish or
Azerbaijani in origin. Our friend and frequent correspondent, the writer
Lucine Kasbarian, brought the latest instance of menu poaching to our
attention.
A cultural arm of the United Nations recently certified keshkeg as
Turkish.
Known by various names, it's a familiar and filling winter-time stew of
mashed wheat and meat, usually lamb or chicken. It has a consistency and
appearance similar to oatmeal and is often seasoned with cumin.
Armenians have been making it for centuries. So apparently has everyone
else in the 'hood, with variations, including Persians and Greeks.
There's nothing odd about that. We know food travels, although its exact
path is sometimes hard to trace. But there are real food historians in
Armenia, and we've noted their efforts to define and refine Armenian food
as a distinct cuisine.
They seem certain that the original version sprang from the distinctly
Armenian earthen ovens called* tonirs*. The stove-top pot version - or, in
the Old World, the open-hearth version - is an evolutionary step. Turkish
cooking, they note, does not include the use of the tonir.
I'm just old enough to remember the lingering euphoria over the UN's birth
after the Second World War and the hope that it would be a major and
lasting force for world peace.
I think it's fair to say that didn't exactly work as planned. But really,
how in the world is it now the UN's business to be poking its fingers in
our soup bowls?
POSTED BY DOUGLAS KALAJIAN AT 12:05 AM
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2011
The Armenian version of porridge is always just right.
(And it's definitely ours!)
http://www.thearmeniankitchen.com/2011/12/armenian-version-of-porridge-is-always.html
From YouTube: Turkish villagers make keshkeg
We've stated early and often that we're food fanciers not food
historians, so we've tried to steer clear of claims that any dish is
uniquely Armenian.
Our premise when we began this blog was to embrace as Armenian food
anything that Armenians eat.
In my case, of course, that would include hot fudge sundaes - although, it
really shouldn't, for a number of reasons. The lesson is that some things
aren't so easy to define or to avoid.
But identity politics is a powerful thing, and it's clear that Armenians
must define their food or others will define it for us.
There's been a clear and ominous trend in recent years among our
not-always-friendly neighbors to label certain dishes as Turkish or
Azerbaijani in origin. Our friend and frequent correspondent, the writer
Lucine Kasbarian, brought the latest instance of menu poaching to our
attention.
A cultural arm of the United Nations recently certified keshkeg as
Turkish.
Known by various names, it's a familiar and filling winter-time stew of
mashed wheat and meat, usually lamb or chicken. It has a consistency and
appearance similar to oatmeal and is often seasoned with cumin.
Armenians have been making it for centuries. So apparently has everyone
else in the 'hood, with variations, including Persians and Greeks.
There's nothing odd about that. We know food travels, although its exact
path is sometimes hard to trace. But there are real food historians in
Armenia, and we've noted their efforts to define and refine Armenian food
as a distinct cuisine.
They seem certain that the original version sprang from the distinctly
Armenian earthen ovens called* tonirs*. The stove-top pot version - or, in
the Old World, the open-hearth version - is an evolutionary step. Turkish
cooking, they note, does not include the use of the tonir.
I'm just old enough to remember the lingering euphoria over the UN's birth
after the Second World War and the hope that it would be a major and
lasting force for world peace.
I think it's fair to say that didn't exactly work as planned. But really,
how in the world is it now the UN's business to be poking its fingers in
our soup bowls?
POSTED BY DOUGLAS KALAJIAN AT 12:05 AM