We entered the parking lot of Montebello's Holy Cross Cathedral to pony rides and monster trucks. Opposite the plastic chairs and tables where families devoured pounds of pilaf and kebab, children from the local dance studio performed a tango on a wooden stage decorated with white banners that boasted the names of festival sponsors. The music blared, almost drowning out the Middle Eastern men and women whose voices have only one volume: loud. In the parking lot that, for the day, transcended parking lots, things were bigger and more colorful, and flavor was chief among these.
It seemed odd that there was only one stand for savory foods and one for sweets. Festival coordinator Anita Altounian explained that the proceeds from the food went entirely to the cathedral and hall renovation project so the meat was prepared by a local restaurant and the pastry were prepared the night before by a group of ladies in one of their homes. We ordered the beef kebab and a few savory pastries we had never heard of. I've never had bad Kebab, but the restaurant-prepared dish was unremarkable. The pastry, on the other hand, was lovely. Particularly the Piroshki, a ball of deep fried dough reminiscent of that used in traditional Sufganiyot filled with sweet buttery mashed potato, the pastry were all slightly similar to dishes traditionally associated with other Middle Eastern countries.
The same was true of the sweet pastry. After making my way through bites of two of the six homemade pastry - the Perog, a jam-filled cake, the Shakar Lokoom, a buttery sugar cookie - the Bourma stopped me. It's essentially a tubular Baklava with a "holy fuckin shit what is that flavor"-flavor. I've had Armenian food and Armenian pastry, and I've had Baklava, but never like this. Denise Hagopian, who headed the cooking demonstrations, explained that although the ladies all grew up watching their mothers and grandmothers making the same traditional foods, there are no definitive recipes. "The country is so hilly, so geographically varied, that the spices available on my side of the hill might be totally different from the spices on your side. You always use the best of what's available and that varies from region to region -- so some ladies make their baklava with pistachios and some ladies use cashews." They can end up tasting totally different, but they are both very much Armenian.
Procedurally, though, recipes are more or less standard. So Hagopian gave us a private tutorial on rolling Sarma, Armeanian Dolmas. Though "you should use fresh leaves when they're available," Hagopian said, she used Orlando brand jarred grape leaves for her demonstration.
HOW TO ROLL GRAPE LEAVES FOR SARMA:
-When pulling the leaves from the jar, be careful not to tare them.
-In a bowl of water, wash the leaves thoroughly to get rid of the brine. This will probably require refreshing the water a few times.
-With the veiny side up, cut out the hard stem.
-Marry the two edges.
-Add your rice horizontally (perpendicular to where the stem had been).
-The leaf naturally folds with the veins in, fold it like a burrito: rolling the bottom up around the filling once before folding in the sides and then continuing to fold up.
-When you're finished folding, keep the tail end down.
Like all of the homemade dishes at the Armenian Food Festival, the Sarma samples were delicious and all the recipes are available in the Holy Cross Cathedrial Ladies' Aid Cookbook.
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