If “bread and salt” is a greeting ceremony known among the Slavic peoples, “jengyalov hats and beeswax” is extremely spread among the people living in Nagorno Karabakh. Being on a business trip in Nagorno Karabakh we experienced this ceremony accompanied in every house. Jengyalov hats (the grain flat cake with greens) – slightly widespread and used in meal in Karabakh during the whole year – generally, no such a dish is available in the cuisine of other regions of Armenia.
The whole ceremony of its preparation is made by aged, skilled women who pass the personal secrets of baking to their daughters and daughters in-law. As if by magic the pastry is rolled out in a flat cake, thin as a paper, and then it is filled with a mix of almost twenty sorts of finely cut various wild and green-staff with vegetable oil. It is baked on the burning hot brazier named “sadj”, and this way in some few minutes the “pie” is ready – hot, steaming and appetizing. But the tastiest is to eat it burning hot, directly next to the sadj. Home-made red wine finishes the whole picture and stirs up appetite; only have time to bake. Karabagh cuisine also boasts with dishes such as kebab, khorovats (barbeque), shish kebab, khash, kurkut (cereals) all this combined with country air and breathtaking nature.
If “bread and salt” is a greeting ceremony known among the Slavic peoples, “jengyalov hats and beeswax” is extremely spread among the people living in Nagorno Karabakh.