“Yerevan with Flair” Festival

In recent years, gastronomic tours along with cultural events have been organized in Armenia. The best reflections of them are the festivals of fish, bread, tolma, apricot, barbecue, grapes in different regions of the country. At the initiative of Yerevan Municipality and the NGO “For keeping and development of the traditions of Armenian cuisine”, a festival of Armenian dishes “Yerevan with flair” will be held on the 10^th of June in Tumanyan Park, next to the Sports and Concert Complex. The festival “Yerevan with flair” has been celebrated annually since 2015 and gaining popularity year by year. The festival is accompanied by a concert program in which folk dance and vocal groups take part. This festival is the main culinary event as the festive and ritual dishes give birth to Armenian national cuisine. These dishes are served during both folk and church feasts. It is known that the Armenians had an idea of the processes of fermentation and bakery 2,500 years ago. The traditions of cooking a lot of Armenian dishes remain unchanged. Continuity of Armenian cooking is manifested, for instance, in the use of old kitchen utensils and in cooking technology. Spices are very often used in the Armenian cuisne. The distinctive feature of Armenian dishes is spiciness. In particular, the most popular Armenian dishes are – barbecue on mangal, barbecue in tandoor, kyufta – meatballs from chopped and boiled meat, tolma – roasted mutton (beef) seasoned with rice, herbs and wrapped in grape leaves, pilaf with pomegranate, smoked fish or dried fruit and so on. Meat snacks such as basturma (dried beef meat) and sujukh (a special kind of cheese sausage with garlic and pepper) have their special place during the feast. During the festivities grape or pomegranate wine, fruit vodka or the legendary Armenian cognac are favorably served.