{"id":3563,"date":"2019-01-10T13:38:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T13:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/?p=3563"},"modified":"2019-01-10T13:38:42","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T13:38:42","slug":"land-of-lavash-chess-and-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/?p=3563","title":{"rendered":"Land of Lavash, Chess and Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Armenian Flag –bottom color is technically ‘apricot’<\/p><\/div>\n

As a kid I was a very picky eater.\u00a0 The adults around me inevitably urged me to clean my plate, saying that my uneaten breakfast\/lunch\/dinner would be sent to the starving Armenians. \u00a0I had no idea who these people were but they were welcome to the food.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to the wonderful (and closing January 13th<\/sup>) exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, somewhat oddly titled Armenia! (note exclamation point). As Jason Farago, who reviewed it for the New York Times<\/em> said, \u201cIt is not an exhibition that favors razzle-dazzle.\u201d This is a link to Farago\u2019s review: https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/10\/25\/arts\/design\/armenia-exhibition-review-metropolitan-museum-of-art.html<\/a>\u00a0 I thought the artifacts deserved an A although the didactic material, hard to grapple with both because the exhibit is, of necessity, dark and also as it\u2019s filled with unfamiliar words, was closer to C.<\/p>\n

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Reliquary said to contain part of the arm of St. Gregory’s last male relative<\/p><\/div>\n

Prior to my museum jaunt my knowledge of Armenia was scant \u2013I thought that the country was the home of Mount Ararat of Noah fame. In actuality, Ararat isn\u2019t one peak but two and is located in eastern Turkey. \u00a0Armenia, the first Christian country, has a long, incredibly complex history and a language related to Greek and Iranian, spoken by 96% of the population. Chess is compulsory in Armenia schools and more Armenians live outside the country than in it.<\/p>\n

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Chess in school (Wall St. Journal)<\/p><\/div>\n

Among many notable Armenians are painter Ashile Gorky, the New York Times\u2019<\/em> Nicholas Kristof, tennis great Andre Agassi, and yes, the Kardashians.<\/p>\n

A cursory search revealed that travel to Armenia is considered relatively safe although there are ongoing tensions with Turkey and Azerbaijan.\u00a0 It\u2019s not yet on my must-visit list but looks interesting with ancient churches, a deep history of wine-making, the world\u2019s longest passenger ropeway, beautiful scenery, and much else.<\/p>\n

What constitutes Armenian food depends on who you ask and where they live. Apparently Armenians outside of the country see things in a more global manner, hardly surprising. \u00a0The cuisine has a great similarity with that of Greece with an emphasis on eggplant, lamb, tomatoes, yoghurt and bread. This eggplant-centric dish looks delicious:<\/p>\n

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Armenian Eggplant Casserole<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 eggplant<\/a><\/p>\n

4 tomatoes<\/a> (in winter I\u2019d substitute about 1 cup canned Italian plum tomatoes)<\/p>\n

1 green bell pepper<\/a>, diced<\/p>\n

1<\/sup>\u20444<\/sub> cup olive oil<\/a><\/p>\n

1 garlic clove<\/a>, finely minced<\/p>\n

1 \u00bd tsp salt; fresh-ground black pepper<\/p>\n

1 medium onion<\/a>, sliced<\/p>\n

1 1<\/sup>\u20442<\/sub> teaspoons salt<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00bc tsp basil, chives, parsley, tarragon, oregano (recipe sketchy here; use whichever you have on hand\u2014adding two or three won\u2019t hurt)<\/p>\n

Sour cream<\/a> (served in a dish alongside). According to several recipes, this is what makes the dish.<\/p>\n

Directions:<\/p>\n

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.<\/p>\n

Peel and dice eggplant.<\/p>\n

Heat oil in skillet; add onion, green pepper and eggplant stirring over low heat until eggplant is soft.<\/p>\n

Add tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Add whatever herbs you are using and simmer a \u201cfew\u201d minutes (I call this 7-10 or until nicely melded.)<\/p>\n

Turn into casserole dish and bake at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

Serve hot or room temperature with sour cream on the side.<\/p>\n

The most popular alcoholic beverage in Armenia is cognac which sounds a little much for the meal. Perhaps beer or wine of your choice\u2014Armenia is said to produce some good reds.\u00a0 Kenats\u2019y (cheers rendered phonetically as the alphabet is entirely different.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a kid I was a very picky eater.\u00a0 The adults around me inevitably urged me to clean my plate, saying that my uneaten breakfast\/lunch\/dinner would be sent to the starving Armenians. \u00a0I had no idea who these people were … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[540,539,538,419],"class_list":["post-3563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-armenia","tag-christianity","tag-eggplant","tag-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3563"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3572,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions\/3572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}