ARMENIAN STREET FOOD (You've Never Seen This Before) Russian Breakfast + Soviet Haircut!

yeah smells like a shoe like a like a shoe that I just went running for like a mile [Music] in welcome to Chopstick travel I'm Luke Martin and this is episode three from armania so I've woken up bright and early and come to the mocon Village so the molokans are a community of Russians that are living here in our Mania I'm going to be explaining more about that later but afterwards we'll be visiting the gy morning Market to sample the local blue cheese and then after that we'll be going to make the famous armanian flatbread known as lavash made in the traditional way we have a lot more planned for today so it's going to be a great episode make sure you stay tuned Until the End let's go eat some armanian [Music] food [Music] this is Natasia here she is a local molan and she's just welcoming us with some tea and this is really interesting this is called a samovar it's 136 years old it is uh using coal to heat the hot water so she's got black tea and then you see she just kind of dilutes it with some hot water and I think this made of copper is that right copper yeah and really cool 136 years [Music] old so the reason that the molans are living here in Armenia goes back quite a ways it was during the 18th 19th century that they were banished by the Russian Empire because their religion was slightly different they were a religious minority slightly different than the Orthodox church so they were banished to other parts of the empire including Georgia and Armenia and some interesting facts they they can only marry within the other molans so whether that's in uh molon in Georgia or in Armenia it doesn't matter but they have to be of molon and also they're they're still speaking Russian uh to this day they've also given us some food so we're going to we're going to try this out I'm not sure what we've got here so let's let's see so this one here is called P it's a deep fried dough that has been stuffed this one's been stuffed with the cabbage and we've got another one back here stuffed with a potato and then we've got several types of jams this is a sea Buckthorn Jam all homemade I'm guessing and then uh raspberry jam in the middle and then this one is with pumpkin Peach and apricot and the Mal loans are famous for their Dairy production so we've got some cheese Here Local cheese and then some flatbread kind of Pancakes to eat with the jam okay let's try this one this one's stuff with cabbage still warm that's really good it's like carrots and cabbage Julian on the inside and fluffy bread yum Natasha makes this cheese herself let's try [Music] it yum oh it's just a light cheese very simple flavor she was just joking saying that everything on the table she makes herself except for the sugar and these candies right here so everything homemade so this is the Pirro joke with potato potatoes instead of the Cabbage that's righty it's like a fluffy donut on the outside and this one's got creamy potatoes on the inside with a little bit of Dill too okay let's try the homemade jams next different types of jams like I was explaining all made by Natasha herself but this one really sounds interesting pumpkin uh peach and uh apricot wow what a combination the pumpkin with the apricot and the peach it's like perfect mixture of a little bit sweet and a little bit sour and then with this bread it's really good that's awesome I want some of that jam take home with [Music] me just finish off with our breakfast with Miss Natasha and her husband very welcoming very hospitable and the food was great and I love to hear and learn about the mocan history and culture and what's even more incredible is that they're keeping their culture alive here in armania some of their kids are actually working now in Moscow so they do visit Russia nowadays they're of course able to go back to Russia just taking a little stroll around their Garden their property here beautiful I love that they're totally self-sufficient they've got their own chickens they've got their own cow they I think I saw Ducks of course they're growing their own vegetables they're making their own cheese they're making their own jam and the food didn't really look like much but I'm telling you that jam was the best Jam I've ever had in my entire life it's a beautiful Autumn morning here in armania the leaves are changing color the clouds are covering the mountains it's beautiful all right that was awesome next we're heading to the city of guy to visit the local Central Market of guy let's [Music] go yes very very they start to us so this is y's Central Market gumy is uh much less visited I guess you could say than yavan the capital and because of that this Market is very authentic compared to the goom Market which we also visited in yavan which is nice but this is like really authentic kind of semi-outdoor Market I haven't seen a single tourist here and there's just so much fresh fruit and veg and gumy is very famous for their cheese in particularly uh blue cheese which uh we're going to try I can't say it looks appetizing if I'm being totally honest with you but let's try it out anyway so there are plenty of little stalls selling the cheese here at the gy market and we just stopped at this one right here and you can see she's got a bag of the blue cheese here and that is seriously blue seriously moldy looking I mean wow I'm not a huge fan of blue cheese and this one's probably the most blue blue cheese I'll ever tried so let's try it yeah smells like a shoe like a like a shoe that I just went running for like a mile [Music] in okay yeah it's a slow slow release of flavor the more you chew it the stronger it gets it's like kind of funky but actually not as much as I was expecting it tastes just like a normal cheese but you definitely get that kind of funk at the back of your nose yeah you can smell it that's going to be there for a while it's a really really blue not a fan no sorry it tastes like salty fish like really I thought I tasted some kind of seafood flavor going on there yeah a little bit concerning but yeah it's like fishy smell when it tastes fishy too I don't know if cheese is supposed to smell like fish but it does it it does another thing I'm seeing a lot of at the market here are these little orange berries they're called sea Bach Thorns let's try one [Music] out super sour but honestly after that cheese that is perfect it's good she said you can take more take more I'll take one more really good sour but helps to eliminate the stink in my mouth one she also just gave me a fig which is really popular at the market here we're drawing a little bit of a crowd got some people hanging out with me [Music] here oh sweet oh that's really really good oh my gosh that's an amazing fig that might be the best Pig I've ever tasted very sweet juicy yum and soft really cool market and next we're going to do something a little bit different than my regular content I've heard that there is a Soviet Era Barber Shop that hasn't changed whatsoever since uh the Soviet times and apparently it's like the best place to get a haircut in town and well my hair is getting pretty long so I figured why not we're going to go check out this barber shop and I guess I'm going to get a haircut [Music] so I'm getting my haircut now and the stuff that they're the tools that they're using like the comb and the scissors and everything is from the Soviet Union the shop is super super cool so far so good I needed one so this works [Music] it all right how do you make me look I think I'm looking pretty good and he's been cutting hair since since the Soviet era so not only the shop Soviet but even the barber thank you so much thank you thank you thank you he asked me at the end do you want a little bit of lenen and I said why not so he gave me the the lenon not my typical cut I'd say but uh what an experience [Music] so we've come now to Lake Savon and in particular the saavan monastery so many monasteries here in Armenia and they're all just incredibly beautiful this is the largest lake in Armenia it's the second largest high altitude lake in the world you can feel the altitude here it's about 1,900 a little bit more meters and you have to climb up some stairs to get up here so you can definitely feel the altitude beautiful monaster with an incredible view over the lake this lake is famous for the lak saan trout which we tried in the last episode it's beautiful it's the landscape here is like breathtaking and especially when you see the I like like ancient building it's really beautiful and once you learned how the like what history behind it you it's like wow it's [Music] [Music] amazing so we're stopped here because we spotted this woman who's selling this beautiful Gata she's very friendly she just gave me a piece of this is a very traditional kind we tried another kind of Gata this one's just with sugar and butter on the inside let's try [Music] it delicious the sugar it's kind of crunchy on the inside and it actually says G Gard which is the name of the area that we're at right now and the name of the monastery that's right up here I just couldn't pass up without stopping she's got these beautiful gate here very friendly thank you so much let see see so all these ladies are set up selling the same thing they've got the sujuk and some dried fruit uh and then also the G G is like the iconic quintessential Armenian dessert and they're all making it at home and they make this in a in a toner same as the [Music] lavash [Music] sh so we're just seeing how traditional lavash bread is made the most famous bread in all of Armenia look at that that's the final product but this is such an interesting process to see first This Woman's got a rolling pin she's rolling with the dough very very thin but then they kind of work it with their hands and get it even thinner and then she's got this huge pillow right here and this is called toner it's a Tandoor oven in the ground it's a wood fire there's charcoal at the bottom little bit of water to kind of help it stick to the edge and then she picks up this entire pillow and plops it onto the side of the toner look at this that is seriously cool and as soon as it hits the side of that oven it starts bubbling up it only takes about 1 minute to get the bread super crispy these women are just Masters at this very very cool [Music] okay so they got a little hole in the ground here do I sit down mhm yeah okay and then okay just be careful please just a little bit Yeah MH all right here goes nothing I got to be fast because I'm going to burn my hand oh is it okay I think I didn't go low enough good good good she says good I think I could have went even lower but wow it is hot it like burn the the hairs on my hand try uh one more time sure okay have that let me go a little deeper I didn't go deep enough it's it looks okay right okay any try one more time try one more time like that is four four 4T deep I'd say at least smoking hot there's a little handle on the back of this pillow here all right let's try this again no they that the first all right there's mine right there definitely doesn't look as beautiful as the women's that's for sure but I think I did all right for my my first try it is seriously hot like my hand is is burnt just from going in thereo okay this is the final result my hand's a little burnt but that was a lot of fun really interesting to see the women working away they're so good at doing that and I'm going to make a traditional Armenian lavash roll so grab some of the kind of less crispy part from the middle and then we've got a whole platter of all these different cheese kind of Village Cheese try to kind of spread that around crumble that in there and then all these veggies back here too maybe I'll go for for cucumber little bit of Dill the dill here in Armenia is so good roll that up let's try [Music] that oh the fresh lavash is so good you can taste the tonir I feel like it's like a little smoky really crispy on the edges and then kind of chewy soft you get that Dill in there the dill here is [Music] amazing [Music] so this right here is probably the most famous site in all of Armenia this is the Temple of Garney it's a pagan Temple it's the only remaining Pagan Temple not only in Armenia but in all of the post Soviet Union Nations and it's a pagan Temple before Christianity was legalized in Armenia as a state religion the major religion paganism so they had multiple gods this uh temple in particular was devoted to the god of the sun there are 24 pillars around it one for every hour of the day so an entire rotation around the Sun and it's in the Greco Roman style not only an incredible Temple here but you've got an incredible view over this crazy landscape of Armenia this massive Gorge with a river flowing through it and there's also an old uh Roman bath house they call it so there is a bath house where you can see where they used to relax and there's also an incredible Mosaic on the floor with depictions of mythological creatures and old Greek writing this was built in the 70s so I'm not talking about the 1970s I'm not talking about 1870s I'm talking about the 70s with no other numbers so first century a this is a really incredible site you have to come see I'm going to go inside and take a look inside let's [Music] go so there's not actually anything inside there are very very few people practicing paganism in Armenia nowadays it's like something like only 200 people but one thing you'll notice is that the steps are really really huge that's how you know it's a pagan Temple because they actually used to kneel coming up into the temple and this Temple was destroyed during an earthquake but then it was rebuilt during the Soviet Union this is just really really cool place you've got to come here and take some pictures take in the history like I've recommended before get a tour guide because there's a lot to learn [Music] back at the hotel now another great day here in armania and that wraps up our trip here to armania I want to say a huge thank you to our tour guide arpie she was absolutely incredible a wealth of knowledge it taught us so much about Armenia the culture the history I also want to say a huge thank you to the Armenian tourism board for inviting us here we would have came even if we were not invited because this is like a bucket list destination that I've been waiting to come to for a long time really incredible cuisine just such an incredible country with so much to see from the monasteries to the beautiful nature to the incredible Rich history here there's just so much here in Armenia I hope you guys enjoyed the series as much as we did making it so if you haven't already subscribe and we'll see you guys on the next episode bye

Channel: Luke Martin

Views: 45,913

Keywords: luke martin, chopstick travel, food, street food, russian food, armenia, armenian food, molokan, fioletovo, armenian street food, food in armenia, gyumri, luke martin armenia, blue cheese, russian street food, food in russia, georgia, asian food, asian street food, chopsticks travel, chopstick travels, luek martin, gata, gata dessert, armenian recipe, garni, cheese, cheese armenia, armenian cheese

Id: od7TrtKBwck

Length: 19min 55sec (1195 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 10 2023