Sofia Hosts Armenian Cuisine Festival
BalkanTravellers.com
The special guests in the Vratata restaurant will be the renowned Armenian Bulgarian chefs Harotyun Tutyan –Arto and Larisa Mirzoyan, according to the horemag.bg website. Arto runs the Yerevan restaurant in the town of Plovdiv, where the Armenian community venerates his culinary talents. The master chef’s predecessors, the publication notes, settled in Bulgaria in 1800, and he inherited the authentic recipes from his grandma. Arto claims that modern Armenian cuisine is very positively influenced by Bulgarian culinary traditions.
Mirozyan, on the other hand, has cooked for such international celebrities as singer Charles Aznavour and political figures as former Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
Arto will be preparing dishes during the first two days of the festival and Mirozyan – during the latter two. Among the first chef’s offerings, there will be red beet panjar, stuffed aubergines with drained yogurt, adjem pilaf with chicken, stuffed eggs with cheese and spices, manti with checken giblets and karniyarik - stuffed aubergines with tender beef and vegetables (in the opening photograph).
Larisa Mirzoyan, on the other hand, will be making ishli-kufta with beef and pork, a red beans roll, trout in walnut sauce, aubergine salad with walnuts and coriander, stuffed grape leaves with beef and ginger, khorovatz – Armenian kebab made from pork with spices and Karabah baklava.
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