Had aveluk in the jingyalov hats and really liked it!

Also want to encourage everyone to go to Yerevan for Yerevan Wine Days in early June. It's awesome; a humongous street party essentially with hundreds of Armenian wine producers/DJs/food stalls. Tickets ran out so I just wandered around. I definitely plan to go next year.

Jingyalov hats is a uniquely Armenian dish, I haven't found anything quite like it from another culture. There's a good recipe in Lavash, the most prominent Armenian cookbook in English. It's actually pretty easy to make. I use pizza dough sold by the sac in the supermarket, 3 ounces rolled out to 8 inches wide for one person.

It's always a special experience to be in a place for a festival. The Armenian Wine Days sounds like a ton of fun, and they are very serious about their wine

Just found this report.

Just: "Wow!!!!

Fantastic!

And that food!!!

Wow!!! ekscrunchy, thanks for finding this! I skimmed through it but will read it more closely. This is amazing! Photos are gorgeous! Such a unique and mysterious part of the world.

Back in the days of Chowhound, I posted this list of food I ate in Armenia:

Lavash (ubiquitous, ultra thin flatbread)
Sea Buckthorn Juice
Apricots, Cherries, Green Apples, among other fruits
Preserved walnuts, raspberries, peaches, pears, cherries, mulberries
Doshab, Armenian 'Cough Syrup' made from mulberries or plums
Rejena (like milk-flavored butter, not sure how this is made or why it isn't everywhere on every table in the world)
Gavurma (meat preserved in butter)
Qalagosh (lavash topped with yogurt and lentils)
Red Bean Soup (with walnuts, onion, and parsley)
Many different cheeses including farmers cheese and smoked cheese
Jingyalov Hats (lavash stuffed with a variety of cooked greens)
Topik (potato galette stuffed with onion, walnuts and peas)
Agulisyan (dumplings stuffed with beef and prunes)
Bread Rusks (crisped lavash) with dips of tarragon, beet, and mushroom
Vana Mshosh (lentil puree with dried apricot)
Arishta (noodles, often with buckwheat but also could be rye flour or others added)
Lahmajo (flatbread topped with minced meat)
Tan (yogurt soup with butter, parlsey, and bulghur served hot)
Piti (lamb stew topped with a dough and baked in a clay pot)
Tomato stuffed with eggplant
Ghapama (stufffed baby pumpkin)
Fried Sickleweed
Ishli Kufta (meat wrappped in dough and fried, aka kibbe in other lands)
Fried potatoes
Cabbage Salad
Roast peppers, zucchini, eggplant
Omelette with sausage and peppers
Chicken Kiev
Pancake rolled with pork
Cucumbers in matsoun (strained yogurt, often with dill)
Summer Salad (tomato, cucumber, onions, parsley)
Lula kabobs (ground meat, wrapped in lavash)
Julien (mushrooms and cheese in cream sauce)
Uzbek Pilaf
Borscht
Homemade pickles (many varieties)
Khashlama (lamb stew)
Fried Chicken in Garlic Sauce
Beet Salad
Pasuch Tolma (cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, dried fruits, vegetarian)
Khashil (porridge with tan and butter)
Tolma (meat stuffed grape leaves)
Goris Hummus (made from Goris beans)
Carrot Salad
Adjeani Kachapuri
Red Bean Salad (served warm with walnuts and onions)
Boiled ishram (trout)
Basturma (dry cured meat)
Aveluk Salad (wild horse sorrel)
Aveluk Soup
Walnut Gata (like rugelach on steroids)
Gavar Bakhlava (far thicker and far less sweet)
Pork Khorovats (BBQ)
Sig (trout) Khorovats
Tan (soup served cold, same ingredients as the hot version)
Tjvjik (can be variety of offal, but commonly liver)
Harissa (chicken porridge)
Olive salad
Kololak (in this case, balls of bulghur and potato in tomato sauce)
Etchmiadzin Qyufta (like a foamy meatloaf)
Bulghur with onion
Soup of corn, beans, peas and bulghur

Just an update that FEEDING PHIL has a new episode about Georgia; mostly Tiflis and around....I.'d be fine as a solo female, right?? A week or so??

Love this report, Shelemm, and so many of your others..... and had just discovered it again after watching PHIL on Netflix. You are a big fave of mine...ek

That is so nice to hear. Thanks. I am always hungering to hear more about your exploits.

Georgia is safe. Hard to imagine any difficulty on that score.

Tbilisi is a fascinating city with many great features. It has a dramatic landscape and takes the phrase shabby chic to a whole 'nother level. One could spend a lot of time there. The book City Guide to Tbilisi Georgia by Stephen Stocks is filled with incisive walking tours.

I have to admit I did my best eating at guesthouses in the Svaneti region rather than restaurants, despite having tips from tips from trusted sources. Part of the problem may be that I just came off 2 weeks in Armenia where the eating floored me.

Obviously you had a sampling of each country and didn't visit entire areas. Of the places you went in each of the countries, which would you rate as the absolutely don't miss, the ones that still today absolutely stick in your brain as great?

Your trip was interesting in that on standard itineraries more time is usually devoted to Georgia than Armenia.

In General, Armenia really stunned me with its swirling emotional pull, the incredible food, dramatic landscapes, and the tremendous hospitality. It was truly a life changing experience as much as a vacation. At so many places I went, people would offer me fruit and/or coffee, From visiting a church to a clothing store, a museum, and a souvenir stand. I felt I learned more here than most any other place I've visited.

If I had to say one place in Armenia, it is really like choosing your favorite child.

Do I say Goris with its unusual French connection and access to cave cities, and the closest city to Tatev? Its sheltering of war refugees? This is the closest city to the tense border with Azerbaijan.

Or Perhaps Gavar, proximity to the Aveluk festival, Noratus Cemetery (and the neighboring lavash bakery), Hayravank, Berdkunk, and of course Lake Sevan.

But then Echmiadzin has a place to stay that is a tourist destination itself, at Machanents Tourism and Art. Not only is it like staying inside a work of art, but they provide employment for seniors and the handicapped. How many times have you been waited on by a deaf waitress? Plus you have easy access to the ruins of Zvartnots Cathedral, and to the east the amazing battle memorials of Sardarapet and Musa Dagh. Each of which go a long way to explaining the history and character of the Armenians. My visit to this area prompted me to read Franz Werfel's 40 Days of Musa Dagh, a towering literary work and a profound experience that affects me to the marrow. I was so glad I was able to visit the heart of the Yazidi community who also were genocide victims. 100 years later.

At Geghard Monastery I was able to go off on my own up a trail that led to rock shrines that were like out if some kind of explorer movie. I was living out a fantasy with nobody else around.

And there were other highlights as well, but you get the idea.

In Georgia, we had only one aim, that was to see the Svaneti region. Ushguli is the kind of intensely rural remote community I dreamed of visiting. It did not disappoint. It was truly a dream come true. I was thrilled to learn about the machubi, as important a structure as the Svan Towers, and their role in the community. We stayed at two guesthouses that were both created by artists and featured their work throughout. We felt connected to the culture..

The reason why Georgia might get the lion's share of most vacationer's time is because it is prettier and lusher than Armenia. And let's face it, most tourists don't want to really learn all that much to begin with.

When you were unable to actually pick most memorable places, it helped me to understand how much you really enjoyed the area.

I will admit that "prettier and lusher" also call to me more than arid as you say Armenia is.

Er Armenia is REALLY green.

Some parts are arid and some are green. The north of Armenia, which I didn't go to, has more trees.

The question is, would you travel to Greece or Turkey?

Greece as boycotting Turkey