Sharing Food at Envoy

The word for friend in Armenian which sounds as ‘enker’ (ընկեր in Armenian) means ‘to eat together’ or ‘to share food’. After sheltering refugees at Envoy, we moved on to provide the families with food and help them feel at home.  Our team members quickly became friends with the families staying with us. Naturally, we started doing what Armenian families do best: cooking in large amounts and sharing the food. Besides sharing a roof, we are now sharing food with each other at Envoy. 

What’s Cooking?

A morning favorite of the kids before leaving for school is freshly-baked bread our staff get from a nearby bakery. The fun part starts when the kids are already at school. The women start cooking to make sure lunch is ready when the kids return. A popular item on the menu is zhingyalov hats. It is a local specialty from Artsakh; a wonderful flatbread filled with different types of herbs. It is a little challenging to find all the herbs that grow in the mountainous lands of Artsakh in Yerevan. Luckily we have been able to source the main ingredients and enjoyed mouth-wateringly good zhingyalov hats a few times. Nothing can beat the taste of zhingyalov hats from the food market in Stepanakert. Managing to make the flatbread in Yerevan and sharing it with around 40 friends comes very close. 

The men have now taken up the challenge of cooking. They have promised to soon prepare khash which is a traditional Armenian thick broth with cow hooves. Men stay up and cook it all night long to enjoy it for breakfast with liberal amounts of garlic and vodka. Soon we will sharing not only a roof but also a hoof 🙂

None of this would have been possible if not for the support of our thousands of friends who have donated funds to Envoy. We appreciate your generosity more than our words can express.