What to Eat in Yerevan | Page 2 of 2
Spas: Armenian Yogurt Soup
Spas is an Armenian yogurt soup made from matsun, thickened with hulled wheat or rice and cooked with constant stirring so the yogurt doesn't curdle. It's served hot in winter and cold in summer. It has two names, a Cossack legend the dictionaries won't back up, and relatives in Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey. In Yerevan they serve it in portions that would pass for a main course anywhere else.
Putuk: Soup with Mutton and Chickpeas
Arishta: Armenian Pasta
Harissa: Wheat Porridge with Meat
Vegetable khorovats
Ararat: The Armenian Brandy They Call Cognac at Home
Ararat is an Armenian brandy made from grapes of the Ararat plain that nobody at home calls anything but cognac - and the European Union paid Armenia three million euros to drop the word by 2043. What is true about Churchill and Stalin, why Yerevan has two distilleries sharing one family tree, and how a tasting of three ages at the brand's museum turned out.
Noy: The Armenian Brandy That Used to Be Called Ararat
Noy is Yerevan's second great brandy, aging in cellars on the site of the old Erivan Fortress. It didn't take the name of the biblical Noah until 2002; before that the product was called Ararat. The factory was founded in 1877 by the merchant Nerses Tairyan, and it was made famous by the Russian merchant Shustov, who entered its cognac anonymously and won the Grand Prix in Paris.
