Mama Makes It Better

Mama Makes It Better | 04.06.10 | 13:40

Chakhobili: Georgian dish, Armenian style

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

Nvard Manukyan, 46, masterly cuts a whole chicken in preparation for chakhobili.

Traditionally Georigian, chakhobili – combining mostly chicken and onion -- is one of the most popular dishes on Armenian tables.

“The whole secret,” Nvard says, “is in the onion.”

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Mama Makes It Better | 27.05.10 | 15:48

Mama Makes it Better: Summer dolma

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

The smell inside Anahit Harutyunyan’s corridor draws attention and kicks saliva glands into action. Summer dolma is on the stove and all neighbors know that the odor leads to a pot of good eating.

The women in the building accuse Anahit of having a “secret” ingredient that she guards closely.

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Mama Makes It Better | 21.05.10 | 12:22

Spring Salad: Tasty, colorful tabule

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

Bulgur grains are being soaked in a bowl. The wooden ladle stirs the bulgur helping the water absorb. The bulgur becomes wet, and little water is left on the bottom of the bowl.

“It is necessary to mix the bulgur properly, so that it absorbs water well. Of course, it is much better to mix the bulgur with hands to feel the wetness properly,” says Hasmik Mkrtchyan, 36.

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Mama Makes It Better | 14.05.10 | 11:06

From Musaler Kitchens: Buttermilk meatball soup

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

There is perfect military tidiness in 36-year-old Hasmik Mkrtchyan’s kitchen – a place for everything, and everything in its place.

Rice, bulgur, matsuni (Armenian natural yogurt) and kufta are in separate transparent bowls. She starts working.

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Mama Makes It Better | 07.05.10 | 16:04

The Most Armenian Dish: Grape leaf dolma

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

Grape leaves are lying on a tray. Yerevan resident, 70-year-old Taguhi Hambardzumyan, takes other leaves out of the water gently and places them near the others.

“We put these canned leaves into boiled water, and as soon as they change their color – become brownish - we immediately take them out of the water,” she says.

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Mama Makes It Better | 30.04.10 | 14:55

Broad Bean Soup: From Nakhijevan, a dish featuring “white greens”

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

It looks like a red bean, but something like a lentil. Or even like green peas. It has a distinct name, though, to bypass other definitions. The broad bean.

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Mama Makes It Better | 16.04.10 | 15:52

Cheesy!: Dried lavash, threads of cheese and stewed onion

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

There are special days at the family of Hasmik Hovhannisyan, native of Gyumri, when guests gather to eat panrakhash (‘steamed cheese’).

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Mama Makes It Better | 09.04.10 | 14:04

Meat Balls and Regional Differences: Kufta, made Gavar style “with love”

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

Anush Grigoryan says it is possible to have the best recipes in the world and yet not be able to cook tasty dishes.

“The thing is that those housewives, who are good cooks, never cook just for the necessity. It is necessary to cook dishes with love,” says 54-year-old Anush.

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Mama Makes It Better | 02.04.10 | 16:52

Symbolic and Tasty: A lesson in the traditional Armenian Easter feast

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

Easter is the most festive of times for painter and ethnographer Lusik Aguletsi. Each Easter season (celebrated this Sunday) her kitchen becomes a parade of food.

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Mama Makes It Better | 19.03.10 | 16:47

Sorrel Soup: Bringing the taste of the hills home

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

When at the beginning of summer Anahit Harutyunyan goes to gather sorrel in the hills of Geghard, it means that she is preparing for the winter cuisine.

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Mama Makes It Better | 12.03.10 | 17:36

Roll Something Tasty for Fasting: Pasuts tolma

Every time Sveta Sargsyan prepares pasuts tolma she tries to use all the secrets passed to her by her grandmother.

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More articles

Education

WiFi, textbooks and more: VivaCell-MTS launches a new program in Armenian schools

By Siranuysh Gevorgyan

The Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia and Armenia’s leading telecommunications operator VivaCell-MTS signed an agreement, according to which 107 high schools of Armenia will be provided with Wi-Fi connection. In addition, about 230 textbooks and methodological manuals will be digitalized.

Connected: Education minister promises more schools with Wi-Fi

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Health

Armenia to get oncology center

An up-to-date oncological center is to be founded at the Yerevan Institute of Physics. The center will be equipped with a Cyclotron, a diagnostic center and PET scanners. The center will practice radioisotope treatment.

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Environment

Experts: Armenian oligarchy’s fate at stake in Mashtots Park

By Naira Hayrumyan

The protests of young environmentalists against the construction of kiosks in a central Yerevan park have been going on for nearly two months now. A “senior” group of protesters joined the young campaigners on March 31 – among them some well-known figures in Armenia. The group tried to dismantle the already installed pavilions, but the police cordoned off the constructions and would not let them get closer to them.

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The Most Armenian Dish: Grape leaf dolma

It is not Dolma, it is Tolma, comes from old Armenian world "toli" which means grape leaf!...

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