Local Dishes

1. Şah plov

   Shah plov (pilaf baked in a lavash crust)

   Usage

   The ingredients are lamb, rice, lavash, raisins, dried apricot, prunes, onion, butter and saffron (or turmeric), with a cooking time of about 80 minutes. The pot is lined with lavash, packed with rice and filling, baked, then turned out whole and cut at the table. If a menu just says plov, that means the rice itself

   Grammar Note

   Şah means king; the name comes from the crown-like shape. Plov is a synonym of aş

2. Qazmaq

   Qazmaq (the crisp crust from the bottom of the pilaf pot)

   Usage

   The part that sticks and hardens at the bottom of the pot or dish (the crust). Example: Aş qazmağı (pilaf crust). It is laid on top of the pilaf when it goes to the table. Note that an identically spelled qazmaq is the verb to dig, a separate word

3. Dolma

   Dolma (minced meat and rice wrapped in leaves or stuffed into vegetables)

   Usage

   It has two senses: minced meat and rice wrapped in vine or cabbage leaves, and vegetables hollowed out and stuffed. Menus name the wrapper first, so read them as Yarpaq / Kələm / Badımcan dolması

   Grammar Note

   dolma derives from an old verb dol- meaning to wind or wrap, and is not related to doldurmaq (to fill)

4. Yarpaq dolması

   Vine-leaf dolma

   Usage

   Minced meat and rice rolled in vine leaves (tənək yarpağı). A meatless version is called dəli dolma or yalançı dolma. Sarımsaqlı qatıq (garlic yoghurt) is a standard table condiment with it

5. Badımcan dolması

   Stuffed aubergine dolma

   Usage

   Dolma splits into leaf-wrapped and hollowed-and-stuffed kinds, with aubergine, tomato, pepper, apple, quince, cucumber and mushroom among the second. A plate holding aubergine, pepper and tomato together is called üç bacı, the three sisters

6. Piti

   Piti (mutton and chickpea stew cooked in an individual clay pot)

   Usage

   A bozbaş cooked in a separate clay pot (güvəc) for each person. Piti and küftəbozbaş serve as both first and second course: you take the broth first, then eat the meat, chickpeas and potato left in the pot as a second plate. The broth is poured over torn bread rather than drunk from the pot

7. Bozbaş

   Bozbaş (mutton, chickpea and potato broth)

   Usage

   A broth of meat, chickpeas and potato, the same dish as piti. Where piti arrives in an individual pot, bozbaş is cooked in one pot and ladled out. Kinds include parçabozbaş (with chunks of meat), küftəbozbaş and qovurmabozbaş. The name is boz (grey-brown) plus aş, from bozardılmış aş, an aş browned in the pan

8. Küftəbozbaş

   Küftəbozbaş (broth with a large meatball)

   Usage

   A kind of bozbaş made with küftə, potato and chickpeas. Küftə are balls of pounded meat, made expressly for dropping into broths. It stands beside piti as a dish that serves as both first and second course

9. Düşbərə

   Düşbərə (soup of tiny meat-filled dumplings)

   Usage

   Small squares of thinly rolled dough, filled with meat, folded and boiled. The name comes from the resemblance to an ear. There is also the word düşbərəxana, an eating house serving düşbərə

10. Xingal

    Xingal (squares of boiled dough with meat and yoghurt)

    Usage

    A dish made from dough cut into squares. Example: Qovurma xingal. It is eaten with meat, onions fried in fat, garlic yoghurt, or in the west of the country with qurut, dried soured-milk balls. There is also the word xingalxana, an eating house serving xingal

    Grammar Note

    Both xingal and xəngəl are spellings in use. Signs use both, so treat the i and the ə spellings as the same dish

11. Dovğa

    Dovğa (yoghurt and herb soup)

    Usage

    A soup simmered from ayran, herbs and rice. Example: Noxudlu dovğa (with chickpeas). Dovğa is usually served after the meal, to help digestion. Made with ayran it is ayranaşı, with qatıq it is qatıqaşı, and uncooked it is çiy dovğa

12. Qutab

    Qutab (half-moon stuffed flatbread)

    Usage

    A semicircular pastry filled with pounded meat, herbs, pumpkin and the like and fried in fat. Examples: Ət qutabı (meat) and Qabaq qutabı (pumpkin). It is cooked on a sac, a flat iron plate. The herb-filled kind is göyərti qutabı. Name the filling first when you order

13. Kükü

    Kükü (thick herb omelette)

    Usage

    A dish of herbs and eggs, sometimes with fish. Kükü belongs to the traditional breakfast spread alongside butter, honey, cheese, lavash, təndir bread, tea and sweets. Note that the same spelling Kükü is also a village in the Şahbuz district of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, and a plant name in the Oğuz area, so read it from context

14. Saciçi

    Saciçi (meat and vegetables cooked in a domed iron pan)

    Usage

    A meat qovurma cooked inside a sac, the shield-shaped cast-iron pan. It can be made with meat, chicken or fish, and because it must be served hot it comes to the table on a three-legged stand called sac ayağı. It arrives as one large pan to share

15. Ləvəngi

    Ləvəngi (fish or chicken stuffed with walnut and sour paste)

    Usage

    Fish or fowl stuffed with walnut, sour pickle and the like. It is most widespread in the Lənkəran–Astara area, where it is often made with a whole Caspian kütüm. Made with chicken it is toyuq ləvəngisi, with aubergine badımcan ləvəngisi

16. Tikə kabab

    Tikə kabab (skewered chunks of grilled meat)

    Usage

    Kabab is meat or fish cooked on a skewer over embers or in a pan over the fire. Tikə kabab is also called şişlik and şiş kabab. Lamb is the default, though sturgeon (nərə) is also grilled on skewers

17. Lülə kabab

    Lülə kabab (minced meat moulded round a skewer and grilled)

    Usage

    A tube-shaped kabab made from pounded meat. The name comes from its resemblance to a gun barrel (lülə). The first sense of lülə is indeed a gun barrel, and this kabab is another of its senses

    Grammar Note

    It can be written as one word, lüləkabab, while menus usually write Lülə kabab in two words. They are the same thing

18. Qovurma

    Qovurma (meat fried in fat)

    Usage

    A dish of meat fried in fat. Meat is fried and packed into jars to keep it, then in winter eaten on its own, fried with potatoes or added to other dishes. It also appears inside compound names such as qovurma plov and İç qovurması

19. Çığırtma

    Çığırtma (fried vegetables or meat finished with egg)

    Usage

    A dish of fried tomato, aubergine or pieces of meat, sometimes with egg beaten in. Example: Pomidor (badımcan) çığırtması. There is also toyuq çığırtması made with chicken. The name comes from the noise it makes while cooking. The same spelling also serves as the verbal noun of çığırtmaq, to make someone cry out

20. Xaş

    Xaş (long-boiled broth of cattle trotters)

    Usage

    A dish made from head and trotters and eaten with garlic. Example: Səhərə xaş hazırlamaq, to prepare xaş for the morning. It is made mainly from the forelegs of cattle, seasoned with sirkə-sarımsaq (vinegar and garlic) or abqora (verjuice), and served with lavash or təndir bread and pickles. The near-identical xas is an unrelated word meaning peculiar to or pure

21. Cızbız

    Cızbız (fried offal)

    Usage

    A fry-up of offal, glossed simply as İçqovurması. Iç refers to the innards, and besides muscle meat the head, trotters, tail and içalat (offal) are used. The name gives no hint of the contents, so skip it if you avoid organ meats. There are also the words cızbızçı, the cook, and cızbızxana, the shop that serves it

22. Dürmək

    Dürmək (a flatbread wrap)

    Usage

    Lavash or yuxa rolled into a tube around butter, cheese and the like, or around nothing. Example: Pendir dürməyi, a cheese wrap. The filling is named first. Another sense is the mouthful you take when eating with your hands, so read it from context

23. Narşərab

    Narşərab (thick reduced pomegranate sauce)

    Usage

    A concentrate made from pomegranate juice. Example: Balığı narşərabla yemək, to eat fish with narşərab. It goes over grilled fish and kebabs. Despite the şərab (wine) in the name it contains no alcohol: the compound is nar (pomegranate) plus şərab, Arabic for drink, i.e. pomegranate juice

24. Lavaş

    Lavaş (thin flatbread)

    Usage

    A bread baked from thinly rolled dough, the same as yuxa and yayma. It is dried for long keeping, then sprinkled with water and wrapped in a cloth to soften before eating. Note that in some districts lavaş means the sour fruit sheet otherwise called lavaşana

25. Təndir çörəyi

    Təndir çörəyi (bread baked on the wall of a clay oven)

    Usage

    Təndir is a truncated conical oven built of clay for baking bread; the dough is slapped onto its inner wall. Təndirs survive not only in villages but in the capital, with households setting one up in the yard to eat the bread straight from it

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