Happy Thanksgiving 2016

Here's something I wrote about Armenians and holidays back in 2010:

While flipping through my families’ photo albums, I was struck with the enormous amount of pictures we have from our holiday gatherings.  Armenians are an emotional, gregarious race and nothing was spared for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

The holidays were a time for our family to get together with all our relatives.  Not only were the meals huge and plentiful, but out came the best Armenian food ever.  We had cheese boreg with just the right amount of cheese, butter and a flaky crust – yum; green beans and lamb stew; yalanchi and sarma created with the loving and experienced skill of grandmas, aunties and cousins; Armenian string cheese; barstarma; and paklava for desert.

I swear my grandma made the best kufta and yoghurt soup ever.  Each kufta (a ball of cracked wheat and meat) was filled with pieces of nuts.  Out of the whole pot, there was one kufta that had a walnut in the middle.  Anyone who had that kufta in their bowl was the lucky one.  She also made choreg; a wonderful twisted, sometimes cheesy sometimes sweet bread.

My mother and grandmother cooked mostly with lamb. My grandmother owned a bakery and would personally go to the butcher and pick out the best lamb for her lahmajoon.  In those days there was always a butcher behind the counter at the supermarket and my grandmother and my mother would pick out the nicest piece of lamb and have the butcher grind it up for her.

Believe it or not but we ate a raw meat dish called khema (similar to steak tartare).   Well, that’s what we called it though I see on the net that other Armenians call it chee kufta or kebabs.  It’s in the shape of kebabs, but it’s raw so we called it khema and I loved it.  My mother made this so carefully with only the best ground lamb selected and carefully handled in order to be able to eat it raw.

It is on these memories that I say my Thanksgiving prayer for 2010.  Thank you God for all the blessings we have in our lives; that we can enjoy our meals freely without hindrance or strife; that our children can grow up educated, smart and pursue their talents and desires; that we can visit each other from across the country or across the world; that we can invite new friends and acquaintances to our tables and share with them in our abundance; that our ancestors can look down on us and smile because it is due to their sacrifice and stalwartness that we are able to enjoy these blessings. 

At the same time that I am rejoicing in my gratefulness, I am also sad hearted to think about the many people in our world who are not enjoying the same things.  Instead they are hurting and suffering great perils and strife.  I pray for those suffering in the world today.