How to pronounce “armenian” in English

You just eat it while you're eating.So Armenians are very used to just eating raw green onions.It's true. A raw green onion-- but I do think in Armenia, the onions are a little sweeter.

And my co-authors are John Lee and Ara Zada.Ara is an Armenian American chef from LA.John is a Taiwanese American food photographer slash photojournalist.

Another way to use kale.The difference between Armenian American food and culture and what I saw in Armenia the country, the differences are pretty profound.

Another way to use kale.And another thing was Armenian culture goes back-- Armenia used to be a much bigger country and then several centuries ago, there

Another way to use kale.So after the Armenian Genocide which started in 1915, there was a mass migration and 1.5 million Armenians

Those are a Middle Eastern style.They're called Armenian cucumbers.You'll see them called Persian cucumbers.

You guys can just pick them for your tacos later, or for your salads, as you want.And I saw those Armenian cucumbers.

Probably like, well, what did you do?I'm Armenian on both sides.

is in an area in muray Hill that some sometimes we call Curry Hill and itstarted out as an Armenian grocery store in the' 40s because there were two Orthodox churches in the neighborhoodand for multiple generations of immigrants from all over the Middle East or southeast Asia but now just in

Another way to use kale.So there's more Armenians that live outside of Armenia than in Armenia.

Another way to use kale.The Eastern Armenians would be like, I don't know, that's maybe too spicy for me.

And then we're also going to be doing a very simple bean dish.I think of it as the Armenian answer to refried beans.And then we are going to talk just a little bit, too, about how the book came about, how I came to write a book with my two other co-authors, what

But it wasn't right to just have John as a food photographer and me as a food writer.I did have some history with Armenian food.I wrote my college thesis-- you guys probably studied things that were much better for employment, but my college thesis was cookbooks and Armenian American identity.

I wrote my college thesis-- you guys probably studied things that were much better for employment, but my college thesis was cookbooks and Armenian American identity.I had some really good Armenian friends in high school and college and I always felt they talked about food more than any of my other friends.And so I wrote this thesis but then put it away for many years.

And it wasn't until John was talking to me about Armenia that I thought, oh, yeah, this is a great idea, but we need to find another person to complete our team.And Ara Zada grew up in an Armenian Egyptian household in LA, and he had also been to Armenia to teachthrough the TUMO organization.

So what I like to think of is if you do get, say, a scallion that is really big, I sometimes will just quarter it and serve itif I'm doing an Armenian table, just so you can get the scallion.I might even soak it in water to reduce some of that astringency.

It's got a freshness and a sweetness.So one of the interesting things about Armenian food in general is a lot of people think, oh, it's got to be filled with spices.And it's not. Really, the key ingredient for a lot of this food is the fresh herbs.

Another way to use kale.And the women in Goris have strong Armenian accents and they like to talk all at once, so we learned a lot,

They didn't know that.There was a guy who was half Armenian.

Well, they changed their mind.There is a song in Armenian.

Another way to use kale.and there's 8 million diaspora Armenians.

are women in Iran who are different kinds of Muslims like my mother and my grandmother they are atheists in Iranthey are Jews in Iran they're Armenians in Iran there are certain is there sheas their sufis they're atheists 750 years ago we had the poet astrologer

Another way to use kale.And it's going to sort of turn into the Armenian equivalent of refried beans.

Another way to use kale.It's a complicated area but it's ethnically Armenian.

Well, they changed their mind.Although, who said Armenian?

You never are shy with fresh herbs, which I think is, for me, going from Burmese food to Italian food, it's closer to what I would thinkof as southern Italian food than it is to what people might think of as Armenian food in the US or Middle Eastern foodin the US. So did you have a question, or-- No, I was just going to say that growing up in an Armenian household, every night for dinner there's

through the TUMO organization.And what was amazing for him is that he found out that the food he thought was Armenian was very different from the Armenian food in Armenia.So it was a learning experience for all of us.

Another way to use kale.I probably need to add more salt. If you're more of a Western Armenian, you would definitely add maybe Aleppo pepper to this.

Some of the ingredients-- or some of the recipes that you'll actually see in the book, that I thought were super exciting,were things like the kiwano melon cooler, the falafel waffles with Armenian cucumber slaw, or the burdock root pizza.She will be sampling three different items today that she'll speak to, but I wanted to please have everyone give her a warm applause

really don't want to cooperate with them because you want to remain free and you became free only when you found your own world.So the-the same is to other people. That's why Pentecostals and Ukrainian Nationals and Armenian dissidents they were my best friends because I knew that I can rely on them asthey can rely on me.

You teach everything from animation, to computer programming, to culinary arts, to food photography.So John finds himself in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, and he's leading this group of Armenian high school kids around Yerevan.And they ended up touring the entire country.

I did have some history with Armenian food.I wrote my college thesis-- you guys probably studied things that were much better for employment, but my college thesis was cookbooks and Armenian American identity.I had some really good Armenian friends in high school and college and I always felt they talked about food more than any of my other friends.

of as southern Italian food than it is to what people might think of as Armenian food in the US or Middle Eastern foodin the US. So did you have a question, or-- No, I was just going to say that growing up in an Armenian household, every night for dinner there'sgreen onions, even raw onions on the table.

Another way to use kale.And they were built, probably funded, at least half of it was funded, by the Armenian diaspora.

Another way to use kale.There's no ocean. There's not much of a spice usage, whereas if you were an Armenian who was in what is present day Turkey,

Another way to use kale.That's something that-- in Armenia today they think of that as a newer food, even though for me I always thought of it as Armenian pizza.

Another way to use kale.Well, if it's Soviet time, the foods there are going to be different than they were if you were Armenian coming from Istanbul.

Another way to use kale.And the ones who live in Armenia also have Soviet heritage, Soviet food traditions, that Armenians who either grew up in California, France,

was a part of my own country, called "The Home of My Eyes." And in this series, I basically acted more like a documentary artist.I photographed the local people, as Azerbaijan being a place of mixed ethnicities, from Turks, Armenians, Persians, and Russians.But all of the people that I photographed had common hand postures that were very similar to the Christian paintings, the El Greco's

No matter the door, you instantly feel the sense of place the minute you enter.The beetle-black heads of Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Mexicans, and Armenians crowded the tables-- populations that have both ready access to the 710and a penchant for the casino's Asian Pan Nine and Pai Gow games.

And so I wrote this thesis but then put it away for many years.And it wasn't until John was talking to me about Armenia that I thought, oh, yeah, this is a great idea, but we need to find another person to complete our team.And Ara Zada grew up in an Armenian Egyptian household in LA, and he had also been to Armenia to teach

So Armenians are very used to just eating raw green onions.It's true. A raw green onion-- but I do think in Armenia, the onions are a little sweeter.You can eat them raw.