These celebrations are serious business. I keep hearing how so many people get into debt by buying and cooking food for New Year celebrations. I am not sure if there is any kind of underlying superstition attached to this tradition. Perhaps they think that if they have enough food on the family table to feed the entire country, they will have prosperity all year. But is it really necessary to go into debt for these celebrations?
These 10 days are official holidays. I was told many things about this holiday season. For example, I was told that Armenians spend the first week of the New Year going from home to home, visiting family and friends, and eating and drinking and eating and drinking. I was also told that most stores, museums, offices, etc are closed. I heard that 24-hour grocery stores remain open. However, since deliveries stop, the stores’ shelves would be empty. This remains to be seen.
In preparation for the holidays, I stocked up on non-perishables and alcohol just to be safe. This way, if someone knocks on the door, I am not caught with my pants down. I also have something to bring with me in case of a last-minute invitiation.
Some people told me they don’t like this time of year because everything is done in excess. But I think it will be interesting. I think it’s great that people have 10 days to share with their loved ones. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be one of those things where it’s not really about spending time with loved ones but about trying to outdo each other with the size of the table. I suppose it depends on the person and the family.
New Years Eve
I was fortunate enough to spend New Year’s Eve with a Yerevantsi (from Yerevan) family. They were incredible hosts. I have spent a good amount of time with this family before. They now tell me that I am their daughter/granddaughter. With that said, they said I should come and help with the preparations. Of course, I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to see how things work behind the scenes.
I arrived at my host family’s home around 3 pm on NYE. The men were either at work our out running errands. The women – the host wife, host daughter-in-law, and host sister-in-law – were in the kitchen. It was organized chaos. There was a lot of work to be done; the guests were arriving at 10pm. I helped them peel, chop, cut, decorate, etc. Later, the men came home and put up decorations, changed light bulbs, took out trash, and fixed things.
In Armenia, living arrangements are very different than what we are accustomed to in the United States. Children live with their parents until they are married. And newlyweds often live with the husband’s family. For example, today’s host family has two sons. When the oldest son married, he and his wife lived with the host family. But apparently, the youngest son traditionally has the “right” to live with the parents. So when the youngest son married, the older son and his family had to move out so the younger son and his wife could stay there. The younger son, his wife, and their 2-year old daughter now live in the home.
The host daughter-in-law is a very nice, quiet, young girl. She bathed, fed and put her 2-year-old daughter to bed. She then joined us in the kitchen. She didn’t stop. She did everything her mother-in-law asked. When we had a moment alone, I started speaking to her. I knew her parents weren’t on the guest list, and I thought it was a bit odd, because the apartment was big enough to accommodate more people. I asked her if her parents are from Yerevan, and she said yes. I asked her if they were coming. She said “no, this is what happens when you marry. You go with your husband’s family. We will see my parents, but not tonight.”
I couldn’t tell if she was upset that she wasn’t with her own family. But she seemed to accept that this is how things work. When I told her that my family just invites the in-laws over for New Years, and that there are often 40 or 50 people for the party, she seemed shocked.
Oh… the food! Part 1: Daytime
I think it goes without saying that there was a lot of good food on the 31st. The host wife and host daughter-in-law had prepared all the food. Everything was home-made. They had been preparing for a long time. For example, they were pickling the vegetables a few weeks earlier during my first visit.
The minute I got there, they fed me a giant bowl of harissa. Harissa, also called keshkeg, tastes amazing but unfortunately looks like goo (I am being nice). In essence, it is made up of chicken and wheat. But the chicken is cooked so long that it practically melts and makes the meal look like a “liquidy” oatmeal. But you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Harissa is delicious, and this was no exception. Though I will give credit where credit is due, and I have to say that my mom’s is better.
As the day went by, we tasted everything we were preparing or arranging, including the different types of desserts. We also ate bread and cheese, which is always a favorite. Later in the afternoon, we all ate madzoon aboor (also called spas or tan aboor). Madzoon aboor translates to “yogurt soup.” It’s made with chicken broth and warmed up yogurt, butter, dried mint and wheat. This madzoon aboor tasted like my grandmother’s. Unfortunately, Medz Mama took the recipe with her to the other side. So I got the recipe from the host wife:
Equal parts yogurt and chicken broth
Sour cream
1 onion (quartered)
1 tsp flour
1 egg (tempered)
Butter
Wheat (boiled separately at first)
Mint
As we were working in the afternoon, the host wife brought an Armenian coffee cup with a clear liquid with stuff floating in it to the table where I was sitting. She said “this is for you” like she was giving me a gift. When she realized I was confused, she told me that it’s vodka with garlic chopped into it. Apparently, if you sit near it, you won’t catch a cold. I don’t know if I was going to be catching a cold that day, but it has been 2 days, and I am not sick. So I think it worked J
The Celebration
It started to snow a bit before midnight, so we ended up having the white New Year I wanted! I was so excited. It was so beautiful watching to snow fall with the street lights lighting up the flakes. The two dinner tables were set and ready to go. The host family’s grandkids had put up the Christmas tree the day before. The scene was perfect, with one exception. The guests were late.
This is the Armenian way, of course. Instead of arriving at 10pm, they arrived at 11.50. I can’t make this up. We said our hellos as Karekin II (the Catholicos of the Armenian Church) and Serzh Sargsyan (the President of the Republic of Armenia) each wished everyone a happy 2011 on TV. This was followed by a funny cartoon clock that struck 12. Then, there was a toast by the host husband, followed by hugs and kisses, vodka drinking, Armenian dancing, and Skypeing with overseas relatives. It was good.
Interestingly, at midnight in Armenia, the phone lines “explode.” So making a call for the first 2 to 3 hours of the New Year is practically impossible. So if you are ever in Armenia for New Year’s, and you need to make plans, you should make them beforehand.
Time to eat. It’s after 1am. We are all hungry.
Oh… the food! Part 2: Nighttime
When we sat for dinner, the food was brought out almost all at the same time. There was no first or second course. There was not an inch to spare on the table. There were a few varieties of salads, including a chicken salad, a beet salad, and an eggplant salad (made by yours truly). There were also olives and the other usual suspects like basterma, cheese, etc.
The table had a variety of meats, mostly from the pork and cow families. There was ham and some kind of other meat product that comes from the pig. I was told that it’s pure fat and apparently very healthy. It seems this part of the pig saves people in Siberia from starving or freezing to death. I’ll keep that in mind on my next trip to Siberia.
There was also some kind of meatball with onions. It reminded me of dolma stuffing. For those who don’t know, “dolma” is any kind of stuffed food (like vine leaves or veggies). Usually, you can have cold dolma (made with rice, onions, and olive oil) or hot dolma (made with meat and onions). This dish reminded me of the stuffing of warm dolma.
The wife had also made blinchigs from scratch. These blinchigs were phenomenal! They were so good, that I really wished she had sent some home with me. Blinghigs are made of a thin, crepe-like dough stuffed with spiced ground beef. She had baked them in the oven, and when they were almost ready, their smell filled the entire house. Let’s just say it took a lot of self-control on my part when we were waiting for the family who was running late.
Supper was roast pork. This was brought out separately. It was delicious, tender and seasoned to perfection. I am not a big meat eater, so I was kind of disappointed there wasn’t a side dish like a potato or rice or something. A few weeks ago, when I was discussing the menu with the host wife, and I mentioned that I make an incredible mashed potato, she looked appalled. She was almost insulted, and I felt horrible. I tried to explain that in the US, mashed potatoes are common during the holidays. But in Armenia, potatoes are inexpensive, and I guess people eat them a lot. So to have such an ordinary dish on such a special day was not acceptable. I still wish I would have made it. It would have been good with the meat.
On the tables around the house were dishes full of walnuts, almonds, peanuts, cashews, raisins, dried plums, dried apricots, dried figs, and other types of dried fruits I didn’t know. This really reminded my of the holidays because the Armenians I know always have a table with nuts, dried fruits, and candies for Christmas. The quality of the dried fruit was out of this world. In fact, if I could relive the whole night over again, I would just eat the blinchigs and the dried fruits. They were my two favourite things.
For dessert, they had made 4 different kinds of sweets. Anyone who knows me knows that, despite loving chocolate, I generally prefer non-chocolate desserts. But there was this one amazing chocolate cake, and it was really something. It wasn’t very chocolaty, and it had layers. It was so simple, yet so flavorful. There was also a coffee cake that looked better than it tasted and a bakhlava that tasted better than it looked.
Last, but not least, there was one heavenly desert. HOLY *#@%^&(... it was amazing. I really think I said the F-word out loud when I tasted it. It was that good. Unfortunately, I cannot recall the name. When they first took it out of the fridge to cut it up, it looked beautiful and light. It was layers of thin dough covered in powdered sugar. The wife told me that the recipe for the dough had been in her family for generations and had been passed down from woman to woman. It tasted a lot like a desert in Armenia they call gata (which, in my opinion, also tastes like nazoog). I honestly don’t know how to describe this flavor to non-Armenians. This desert was basically thin layers of dough, and within the lawyers of dough, was thin layers of this thick, hard, sweet cream. The inside cream is so thick, it was like a layer of dough. In fact, you could crumble the thick cream with your fork. This cream is what gave the cake it’s gata-like flavor. It was perfect: light and not too sweet.
Aside from the deserts, there were chocolate covered figs, plums, and apricots from Grand Candy, Armenia’s famous candy shop. There were also bowls of other candies from Grand Candy. Of course, there was fresh fruit including – oranges, grapefruits, kiwis, apples, bananas, pomegranates, and some odd apple-looking fruit that tastes deliciously sweet when you first bite into it, but then gives you cotton-mouth. No one ate fruit.
Missing from the meal was anoosh aboor (“sweet soup”). Anoosh aboor is a traditional Armenian New Year dessert made with sugar, wheat, dried fruits, nuts, and cinnamon. I love anoosh aboor and was curious to see how the Yerevantsi version compared with my mom’s. But the host wife confessed to me that she didn’t have a good recipe, so she preferred not to make it. So I will send her my mom’s! I think she will be happy.
At the end of the night, the days of hard work turned into a delicious meal that everyone enjoyed. But I can’t help but wonder if it was really all worth it. My host wife and host daughter-in-law slaved for days over a meal that lasted about 2 hours. I certainly enjoyed it. But part of me felt bad for them. These women are not housewives, they both work! I suppose it gave them a sense of pride to put together this special meal on this special day for the special people that had gathered. And they should be proud. It was outstanding.
Tserkernit talar host wife and host daughter-in-law! Thank you for allowing me to share this special day with your family and for treating me as one of your own.
I wish you all a happy, healthy, prosperous 2011.
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| This is my contribution to the New Year meal. It's fried eggplant, covered in yogurt seasoned with garlic, and crushed walnuts. The crushed walnuts are a new addition to the recipe. I picked it up in Armenia. |
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| Here is a shot of one of the tables as we are bringing the food out. |
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| This is the hallway table with the nuts and dried fruit. There is also a three-layer dish with sweets on it. Finally, the separate plate with the golden, flaky stuff with the powdered sugar is my favorite dessert. |
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| Here is a close-up of some of the food. On the right, the brown things are the blinchigs from heaven. To the left, the whitish strips are the Siberian pork fat things. To the left of that is the salad with beets (it was beautifully decorated). Toward the center is my eggplant dish. |
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| This is the other table. |
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| White New Year as seen from my kitchen window. |
shenorhavor nor dari & sourp dzenount 2 u 2 Rubi! like a sponge, you're imbibing everything -enriching experience ; keep on posting :))xo
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