Our family has been enjoying great food from the Mediterranean
for many years, and we would like to share some of our favorites with you!
When Mrs. Bezjian told me of her plans to write a
"complete" book of Armenian recipes and then showed the pages, which
included recipes of French, Japanese, Chinese and Indian origin, I asked why?
"But it is the way I cook," she said.
Indeed, that is
the way she cooks. And her scope is as wide as it is passionate. She did not
dismiss her French recipes, because French cuisine became somewhat integrated
with the existing cuisine in Lebanon, where she lived for many years after her
family fled from Armenia. "We ladies of Lebanon would ask the French
chefs to teach us how to cook," she said. As for the Chinese and Japanese
dishes: "It's always more exciting when a menu includes surprises,"
she said. Well, now that I think about it, a menu is more exciting with
surprises and so would be a book containing the life work of a woman who loved
cooking enough to teach it, guests with her extensive repertoire, and dedicate
a book to it.
In her repertoire there are Middle Eastern
recipes which go far beyond Armenia, such as mansaf, the national dish of
Jordan, ice cream from Damascus, lemon chicken from Morocco, and Egyptian
sponge cake called basboussa. Many of the Middle Eastern recipes in Mrs.
Bezjian's book are not easily found in other cookbooks. I had not anywhere
encountered a recipe for Ayesh-el-Saraya, a bread baked in syrup and topped
with clotted cream. There is even a workable recipe for lokoom, a fruit paste
for which I had been searching for years. There are Armenian dishes which may
perhaps surprise many Armenians, such as paska, the Russian-Armenian Easter
bread, snail shaped fritters with syrup, or a pudding made with chicken
breasts. Certainly, any Westerner will be fascinated with the variety, as I
was.
Serving the New World Since 1966
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