QUOTE (Anahid Takouhi @ Oct 7 2005, 08:09 AM)
Arpa:
All this talk about 'khorovats' and 'dereve litsk' at 4 o'clock in the morning makes me very hungry.
You and my mother will get along together very well.
Yeah!
Are we invited?
I feel passinately about the subject since just like George W, (not this one you silly
), I cannot tell a lie either. That is I cannot fight the Turks from one side of my mouth and eat "Turkish"? food at the other side.
It is noteworthy that the so called western Armenians, specially those who hail from Kilikia, and whose ancestors spoke /knew Turkish, not by choice mind you, for the most part are more sensitive about the issue.
I have noticed that those who have no inkling of Turkish, or for that matter Armenian, like some American-Armos, and sad to say even Yerevantsis and Isfahantsis , for lack of linguistic diversity do actually think that the names of those dishes are in fact Armenian. Let me repeat; THE NAMES of those dishes.. Why do we call that delicacy “chiy kofteh” or that pilav “bulghur pilav” (the jury is still out as to where “pilav” comes from, the Indians call it “pilaw”). Don’t we have a word for chiy/raw? What does hum mean? Don’t we have a word for bulghur, what does tsavar mean? I have seen many a Bulghurjian family change their surname to Tsavaruni.
I have said this before. THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW, and it must come down from the top, our institutions, mainly the church who are our front to world, at least in the Diaspora. How can one advertise “Armenian Food Festival” where every dish is labeled by foreign names? Many with that disgusting (non)language. Here we are fighting tooth and nail to disassociate ourselves from that Ottoman legacy , yet we speak Turkish every step of the way, specially in our kitchens.
Which do we believe?
We viciously attack those poor little Turks that come here and innocently, at times propagate their l of perception of the issues, yet we turn around and have dinner where every dish is labeled in Turkish. I am glad that they have not yet graduated to the level to comment on our Turkish surnames and our so called Armenian cuisine.
It is ironic that the Turks have relabeled that dish “doner kebab” that the Arabs call, “shawurrna”, from “chevirme” an original Turkish word meaning swirling./turning.
Speaking of “there ought to be law”, some time ago I learned, much to my delight that the Diocese had made it known that belly dancing was not welcome at Armenian parties, not so much based on its ethnic implication but rather on cultural and moral bases. Why can’t the diocese advise that food at Armenian festivals be labeled by their Armenian names? There was a time when nobody would have noticed it but now that there are sizable Turkish communities here, imagine that at respective festival the same dish will be labeled with the same Turkish name as at the Turkish food festival . Duhhh ! Which is it?
There was a time we felt safe that the general public would associate such as dolma, sarma, yalanchi… ad infinitum, ad nauseam with Armenian culture. But now that there are so many other ME and Asian cultures promoting their wares in their own language, be it Arabic, Persian, Turkish or Afghani, is it not time that we develop our own vocabulary, lest the public, going from one food festival to the other be confused and eventually judge US as imposters for displaying Turkish and Arabic dishes and calling them as Armenian?
There are only so may dishes to go around yet each people call them in their own language.
Kafta is Arabic for “hamburger”, we use it to mean kneaded mixture of meat and tsavar, same idea. Steak is the same no matter where yet each nationality has their word for it. Hot dog with slight variation of ingredients is known as wiener in Europe.
Are we the only “idiots” to not have a cuccinal lexicon, and instead promote Muslim Turkish culture at our Christian Armenian Churches?
With the free propagandist like us who needs a lobby.
Every one should boycott those so called Armenian Food Festivals until they relabel their wares with the proper Armenian names.
I do!!