We want to introduce you to some of the foods that we are served here in Armenia at either Armenian homes or in the restaurants.  The following 4 pictures is a menu in one of the restaurants that we like to go to:

 We are not sure whether you can read the menu but much of it is either pork, lamb or beef barbecued. They eat a lot of barbecued meat.  Yes, french fries is a big thing here.

 Here we have barbecued liver, mushrooms or stuffed beef!

If you can't read the menu here are a few of the items: Steak with sauces (top left), Chicken brisket, chicken wings, Beef Lamothe (bottom right on left side - beef, mushrooms, olives, pepper, carrot, ketchup and onion); The two round things are beef bulgar (perhaps bulgar wheat and beef - like a meatball?) Bottom right, right side is what they call in English pancake with meat.  It is like a crepe with meat inside.

If you haven't been interested in any of the other items, on this menu is Frog legs, Quail or barbecued Snake.

You may be entertained by this group of musicians

Or this group.  They are very good.  

Or they may dance for you.  This is a Georgian dancer at a Georgian restaurant.

One thing they eat a lot of here in Armenia is bread.  The flat bread on the bottom is called Lavash (with the accent on the La and the a's have an aw sound)

These ladies are making Lavash.  You can see that they are sitting in a little square hole.  The one lady on the left starts out with the dough and tosses it to the lady on the right who will flip it around too and then stretches it out on the oval shape board.  Then she will place it in the oven in front of her and it will stick to the wall until it is ready to be brought out.  Then it is dried like on the rack below, which is at a different bread making place.

It looks like this when they take it off the rack and fold the sheets up.  This is our Mission driver's wife Naira who is cutting it up with scissors and stacking it on the plate (see below).  Everyone gets one set by their place at the table.  They eat a lot of lavash.  They will wrap meat, greens, cheese in it and eat it like that.

 A cheese plate.  Most of their cheese is extremely salty!  We can't eat it.

 They make things look so fancy.  Here is a cute cut lemon and olives on a plate.

This is what is called a caesar salad and is for one person!!  Elder Eyre and I usually share one of these.  Most all of the salads that you order will have meat in them.  It is like a meal in itself.  Lots and lots of mayonnaise.

Very colorful looking food. 

They pickle foods a lot also.

 These two pictures are of an item called Khinkali.  It is a Georgian food, but is served everywhere in Armenia.  It has different fillings inside.  Some just cheese and some meat.  There are juices inside too.  You are suppose to pick it up with your fingers by the "stem" and take a bite while sucking out the juice so it doesn't spill out.  We never quite mastered that.  One is boiled (upper picture) and the other one is fried (lower picture)

 This dish shown above is Borsch.  They serve that all over here too.  It is a Russian dish.  Made up mostly of cabbage, beets potatoes, carrots and meat with a dollop of sour cream on top.

This sign was in one of the restaurants.This one also, showing that only the Staff (cooks) are allowed!!

 This type of food is extremely popular all over Armenia, all of the time.  They are taking out of the oven meat that has been wrapped in lavash and cooked in the underground oven (shown below)

This oven is 6 feet down.  They put a lot of food in there to cook.  It is served on a plate like is shown below.  You pull apart the Lavash and inside is the meat.  Also on the plate is potatoes.

Another thing that is cooked in the underground oven and is brought up and put on the table is shown below.  Barbecued meat (chicken, pork and beef), potatoes and vegetables on long skewers.

  Elder Watkins wonders if he can eat this all by himself!!  But we all helped!  This is a very popular

They love to display their fruit in beautiful, fancy cuts and settings.

 Below is what you see in the bakeries in the stores.  They are very fancy but not very sweet or moist, but beautiful to look at!

 You can see the price on one of them which shows 5680 dram.  That is five thousand six hundred eighty dram ($14.00)

 This is our Relief Society President Silva who baked these desserts which takes many hours and sometimes days to make.  There are layered as you can see.  Then when they take each layer and frost it and put it back together again, it looks like the one in the dish below (front).

The next few pictures shows our meal at the Mission Driver's house.  His wife is an excellent cook.  The tables are very full of so many different kinds of foods.

The dish on the lower right that is dark looking is walnuts that are coated with a paste like honey syrupy kind of stuff.

Fish anyone?

Here is the drive Ruben, his wife and son and daughter.  They have one daughter going to school in America.

Here is all of us at the dinner.  It is held on the week of New Years when people really celebrate with food.  The guy in the middle of the picture is the manager of Gold's Gym here in Armenia and is from America.

Here some of us senior couples with a family that is leaving for America after having been here for two years working in the US Embassy.

Here are us couples at the Mission President's house with the Mission President from Ukraine, his wife and a couple of missionaries that had to come to Armenia to get their Visa's renewed.

Elder Eyre is on the left and next to him is the couple that have been serving in Georgia as the Humanitarian Directors (Elder & Sister Reese).  This is their last night with us as they have been here 23 months and going home.  To the right of them is our Humanitarian Directors for Armenia (Elder & Sister Stone), to the right of them is our CES Senior couple (Elder & Sister Reading) and me.

We are happy to be here and learning of the Armenian culture.  We have learned so much, not only about the people and their culture, but about the Gospel.  We have had our eyes opened in so many ways in seeing the Gospel in action.   We have come to learn a little on where some of the lost tribes of Israel went when they were carried off to the lands north.  When those who are of the House of Israel hear the Gospel it is truly amazing to observe their elation at hearing the truth for they recognize it at once.

A recent convert was so prepared that we now have him teaching us as we continue with his after baptism lessons as a way of understanding what he knows and he is truly teaching us for he has been prepared and will be a great priesthood holder in the upcoming days as the Church in Armenia continually moves forward.  They are working very hard this year to qualify for a Stake as that is the first step in their desires to have a temple in their midsts.

When you look at the history of the Armenian people you can see so many parallels and of course their legend is that they are descendants of Noah for in ancient times Mount Ararat was in the middle of Armenia.  Noah and his family settled in the surrounding countryside and so they have a very deep and abiding legacy.  They were the first country to accept Christianity back in 301 A.D.

So along with the foods, we have been treated to much culture and the love of this people, for the rest of the world could learn a little of their hospitality. We have three months left and in many ways are not looking forward to leaving as this has become our home and we have grown to love this people and have many friends.

We hope that this blog will give you some insight of them recognizing their zeal for family and enjoying one another's company.

Until next time,  Elder and Sister Eyre