Glendale News-Press/ Burbank Leader, a division of the LA Times
By Rima Shah
Weekend, February 26-27, 2005

“Do not add garlic to your hummus.”

No sooner did the words drop out of Barbara Ghazarian’s mouth, that very
loud, shocked gasps emerged from the audience at the incredulousness of hummus
without garlic.

But Ghazarian, author of “Simply Armenian: Naturally Healthy Ethnic Cooking
Made Easy,” has a reason.
Garlic overpowers other flavors, especially that of the chickpea in the
hummus spread, she said.

The audience, about 50, listened intently, ready to give its opinions at the
Glendale Central Library Wednesday evening where Ghazarian, half Armenian and
half Irish-English, came down from Monterey to talk about her book.

But it wasn’t just garlic’s strong bite that the audience, mainly of Armenian
descent, offered its opinion on. Responses were thrown in about cooking lamb
versus beef and how to get rid of the lamb’s smell while cooking.
Ghazarian expected it. “Armenian food is village food,” she said. “I call
myself the diva of village food. It’s very social food.” That was part of the
flavor of Armenian food, Ghazarian said. It is easy to cook and it’s healthy.

Suzanne McLay, a dietitic intern, at Glendale Gcommunity College, agreed on
the benefits of the Armenian diet.
“They use a lot of lamb, dried fruit, nuts, yogurt, which has a lot of
friendly bacteria, olive oil, lemon juice, spice and vegetables. So in that respect,
it is a very healthy diet,” McLay said. “But they also rely on a lot of
pastry, filler dough and butter. It is a little high on saturated fat.”

But, most importantly, it adds color and camaraderie to the kitchen,
Ghazarian said.

It adds color to the kitchen during the chopping of tomatoes and cucumbers,
the mess of ground meat and the opportunity to cook it with a friend.

“It’s chaos, it’s chaotic,” she said. “Perhaps that’s what we need in our
kitchens – more color, more fun and much bigger messes in order to get us to eat
correctly.”

Armenian food is diverse. Armenians are spread all over the Middle East with
significant populations concentrated in Iran, Turkey and, of course, Armenia.
Armenians, in these different regions have developed their own ways of cooking
different dishes and have assimilated various dishes from their Arab
neighbors, such as hummus and “tabouli” salad–a finely chopped mix of parsley,
tomatoes and onions. Although Armenian cooking is not vegetarian, the book claims
more than half the recipes are vegetarian, a result of strict Armenian fasting
requirements.

The recipes in the book took about 10 years to put together, she said, and
have been tested for success.