Chaimen is an authentic Armenian spice blend that provides tons of flavor to numerous meat and vegetable dishes, as well as casseroles. However, it is mostly used for curing meats and sausages, although it can also be used in soups, stews, or as a dipping sauce for flatbreads.
The blend is typically prepared with ingredients such as fenugreek, paprika, salt, black pepper, cumin, allspice, garlic, and cayenne pepper. When used as a marinade, the dry spice blend is added to tomato paste, parsley, crushed garlic cloves, and either olive oil or yogurt.
Aveluk is a type of native Armenian wild or mountain sorrel with a slightly sour flavor. It is a traditional ingredient typical of authentic Armenian cuisine that finds wide usage in dishes such as aveluk soup and aveluk salad. The leaves of aveluk are typically collected during the spring season, and they are then made into braids, which are either used fresh or hung to dry in a windy place, away from direct sunlight.
In Armenia, the aveluk braids are traditionally made by women and are usually very long, even up to four times the height of the one who’s making them. Praised for their exquisite flavor and remarkable medical benefits, fresh or dried braids of aveluk are available at numerous markets.
This saffron variety is grown exclusively on Azerbaijan's Absheron Peninsula for more than a thousand years. It is usually grown in small quantities on farm fields, and currently, 1 kg of Absheron saffron costs about $11,000. The expensive spice is typically used in saffron-rice plov, one of the national dishes of Azerbaijan, which is commonly served with a variety of fresh herbs and vegetables on the side.
TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.