ARMENIAN FESTIVAL
Barbara Yost
Arizona Republic
icles/1130sr-arts1128armenian.html
Nov 28 2007
The Arizona Republic
SCOTTSDALE – This year’s Armenian Festival, sponsored by the Armenian
Apostolic Church of Arizona on Saturday, is like none held here before.
For the first time since the community organized in 1957, parishioners
have their own priest, Father Zacharia Saribekyan, an Armenian who
arrived in Scottsdale three months ago after serving a parish in
Jordan for several years.
With the priest comes a renewed push to build a sanctuary. The
congregation has been using its multipurpose building, the Armenian
Church Cultural Center, for worship services.
"They’ve actually decided to build a church," Saribekyan said.
Proceeds from the festival, with its tantalizing traditional foods,
dance and music, will support efforts to break ground next year. It’s
a heroic effort for a small community that draws a few hundred ethnic
Armenians from around Arizona to their only church in the state.
Until this year, worship services were conducted monthly by an
itinerant priest from California.
Maybe this year, the kabobs will taste a little more pungent, the
baklava a little sweeter.
Sylvia Hagopian and other women in the church are doing their best
to ensure the food is as much a blessing as the new pastor.
Lunch and dinner are served.
On the menu are chicken and beef kabobs, with rice pilaf, salad and
vegetables; stuffed grape leaves, filled with rice and onions; spinach
barak, or phyllo dough pockets filled with spinach and cottage cheese;
and Armenian pizza, called lahmacun (lah mah JOON), topped with ground
beef, onion and garlic.
Festival chair Donna Sirounian promises a table just for desserts,
such as baklava, citrus-flavored and nut-filled phyllo pastry, and
the similar bourma, phyllo filled with syrup and nuts.
Armenian food, Hagopian said, "is very close to Greek food, but with
different flavors and spices. We use a lot of garlic, onion, lemon
and parsley."
Much of the food is prepared and frozen, then cooked during the
festival.
"We go crazy in the kitchen," Hagopian said. "It’s a lot of work,
but I enjoy it."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
