food drink

What to eat (and drink) in Armenia

Armenian food doesn't shout. It's built around a handful of techniques — long slow braising, wood-fire grilling, careful spicing with dried herbs and pomegranate — applied to exceptionally good raw ingredients. Khorovats, the Armenian barbecue, is less a dish than a social ritual: whole cuts of pork or lamb grilled over vine cuttings, eaten outdoors with lavash bread that has been baking in tonir clay ovens for millennia. Dolma (known locally as tolma) wraps minced meat and rice in grape leaves or cabbage, finished with matsun yogurt. Jingalov hats, a flatbread stuffed with more than 20 wild herbs, comes from Karabakh and remains the most vegetarian-friendly thing on most menus. To drink: Armenian brandy (not cognac — only the French appellation allows that word) from the Yerevan Brandy Company has been aged in Caucasian oak since 1887, and the local mineral waters from Jermuk rival anything from the Alps. These guides go from street food in the Vernissage market to the best restaurants in Yerevan.