ediecago

Ok Azat. I guess I will need to just bring home dried aveluk from Hayastan on my next trip and compare it to dried sorrel. It sounds to me like a wonderful excuse to eat a lot. My husband still dreams of the old days when I decided to make a perfect Spanish flan like Siete Puertas in Barcelona. We had good to great flans every other day for several months. He liked eating my "good" attempts. At least a combination of spinach and sorrel might taste good in a lentil soup though -- right? And it would be good for you. Time to hit the kitchen as soon as I tackle my house. We have guests coming for the holidays and there's no place for them to sleep until I clean up my "study". Edie

Arpa, MosJan and others: Thanks all for the aveluk advice. I DO have friends in LA -- but most stores send things by mail to us in the hinterlands. There's a market here I need to try and now that I know it's SORREL -- I can try chi-chi organic food stores too. I THOUGHT it was lemony like sorrel is supposed to taste. Only I'd never cooked with sorrel and only had a bad sorrel soup once. Now I've had lots of great sorrel soup in Hayastan! Thank you for the spas recipe. One of my favorite memories of Hayastan is my 7 year old daughter being served spas without being asked if she wanted any. I shuddered to think what would happen as this american kid (who does NOT eat madzoon plain -- she likes the dannon stuff with sprinkles etc.) tried a hot soup made with plain yogurt. But she tasted it, smiled at our hostess (a wonderful nun no less) and me and said "Mommy, this is delicious, can we have this at home?" I breathed many sighs of relief. I knew I had a good kid, but it's just the best when they rise to the occasion isn't it? I asked her later and she said it really was ok - tasting. She loves lentil soups so we'll try the lentil-aveluk soup soon! I know spinach is bad for babies until age 1 because of the oxalic acid they can't digest (although there is plenty of spinach babyfood out there). I gather aveluk is the same. The good news is that I am 43 and can therefore eat it happily.

Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm confused though: Why would they make entire salads of the poached stuff if oxalis is toxic? Also, the clover you cited has three round leaves (regular, front-yard clover), whereas aveluk I'm looking for has long dark green leaves (8-10 inches long?) that are braided together and dried. I think I'm looking for something closer to dinosaur kale or swiss chard? Besides, I don't like the answer that the yummy stuff is toxic. Give me another answer! How about aveluk makes you thin and beautiful and brings good luck? Chicago is wonderful. Like New York but cheaper, cleaner, less-dense, and friendlier. Edie

Help! I just returned from Hayastan and I must have aveluk-lentil soup. I also need a better recipe for spas. The soups in Armenia are wonderful and different from the soups I've had elsewhere. And where, pray does one get AVELUK in Chicago? I know one of the secrets to the lentil-aveluk soup is aveluk and the other is garlic (imagine that?). Is there a decent substitute for this lovely, lemony green? Please help!