A restaurant and cafe culture is starting to flourish again in Armenia, with street stalls and privately run establishments replacing the colorless state restaurants typical of the Soviet era. New cafes and restaurants open daily. Many of the cafes are in parks, and are very popular in summer with locals and tourists alike.
Things to know: Much Armenian cooking is based on lamb, either grilled and served as
shashlik with flat bread, or prepared as soup (the most popular being
bozbash, a dish which exists in infinite variations) or stew, often in combination with fruit or
nuts. A meal usually starts with a large spread of hors d’oeuvres, which may include peppers and vine leaves stuffed with rice and meat, pickled and fresh vegetables, salty white sheep’s cheese eaten with fresh green herbs and flat bread, and various kinds of cured meat (
basturma).
During the season following the grape harvest, locals sell effervescent, mildly fermented grape juice from roadside stands. Armenia is also abundant in all kinds of sweet-tasting fruits, from figs to pomegranates to quince. Coffee is served Turkish-style – strong and black in tiny cups – although in view of national sensibilities, visitors would be ill-advised to refer to this cultural similarity.
National specialties:
•
Sharots (
Sujukh) is cooked with grape juice and a dark cherry-colored syrup called
doshab.
• Lavash is a think, paper-like bread.
•
Shampours are skewers that are jam-packed with all kinds of marinated meat and vegetables
• Delectable walnut jam (
popok muraba).
•
Tolma (vegetables, grape leaves and lentils).
•
Ghapama is pumpkin stew with rice, raisins, apples and cinnamon.
•
Khash is a national institution rather than just a dish, with poems and songs throughout the centuries being composed in homage to it: in case you are wondering,
khash is a delicious broth made from hamhocks and herbs and served with lots of garlic and bread.
•
K'rchik is pickled cabbage cooked with wheat kernels.
• Among Armenia's many varieties of fresh fish available, try steamed
Ishkhan (lake trout).
• Almost magical, health-giving properties are ascribed to dried apricots from the Caucasus.
• For dessert, eat a dish made from grape juice, dried into thin sheets of a deep, reddish brown color, and then rolled up into long cylinders around walnuts or other nuts.
National drinks:
• Brandies are exceptional (
Dvin).
•
Kotayk and
Kihikia are Armenian beers worth giving a go.
• Armenian wine is well worth tasting: the
Areni red wine is particularly lauded and many are semi- sweet or dessert wines and are world-renowned.
Legal drinking age: There is no minimum.
Tipping: Expected by waiters and doormen in restaurants – sometimes in advance to ensure service. Taxi fares should always be negotiated before starting a journey, and visitors should be aware that rates proposed initially are likely to be unreasonably high, in the expectation that foreigners will have unlimited cash and little idea of how much they ought to be paying. It is therefore advisable to make enquiries about ‘going rates’ per kilometer of travel before entering into negotiations with taxi drivers. The same applies to market stall holders and so on.
NightlifeThere are restaurants and nightclubs featuring local music in Yerevan. There are several restaurants, clubs and discos. There are several casinos. Opera, theater and ballet performances are of a high standard, and tickets are cheap (about the equivalent of US$5). Armenians love music, from the traditional, liturgical songs (
Sharakans) with distinctive musical instruments, to contemporary jazz and pop. There will often be venues accommodating for this at night. There are often concerts at the Philharmonic, Chamber Music Hall and Opera & Ballet House in Yerevan.
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