Thursday, September 02, 2004
By KEITH J. O’CONNOR
Staff writer
While various towns held “taste” events this summer to sample the “tasty” fare from area restaurants, it’s the Armenian community now inviting the public to enjoy a fun day of traditional foods and dancing with them at their eighth annual Armenian Fest Sunday.
“It’s a time to share our common, everyday foods and our traditions among ourselves and with other communities,” said Eleanor Demirjian of St. Mark Women’s Guild.
“And it’s a time to have fun and see friends you only see on occasion and to catch up on what has been happening with them,” she added.
The event, noon-6 p.m., will be held on the grounds of St. Mark Armenian Church at 2427 Wilbraham Road, Springfield.
According to parishioner Hagop “Jack” Boyajian, the festival began eight years ago as a picnic “in the confines of the church hall,” but soon outgrew its quarters indoors.
“The festival is multipurpose in addition to bringing people together,” Boyajian said.
“It also serves to sustain the basic needs of the parish such as meeting gas and electric charges, as well as raising money to provide charitable funds, such as when we helped those impacted by an earthquake in Armenia,” he added.
Admission to the festival is free, but money is raised through the sale of food and other items.
This year’s menu will include hot shish kebab, chicken kebab, and losh kebab, which is beef and lamb with spices, priced at $10 to $12.
“The dinners come with rice pilaf, salad and bread,” Demirjian said.
Members of the St. Mark Women’s Guild have been cooking around the clock to stock a bake table where diners can enjoy an appetizer or dessert “on the spot” or order some to take home. Among Armenian delicacies for sale will be flaky turnovers called cheese boreg, spanakopita or spinach boreg, string cheese and boorma, a flaky pastry with sugar syrup. There will also be a sweet bread called choreg, stuffed grape leaves and butter cookies.
“Paklava, which is the same as baklava, is a layered filo dough with nuts, cinnamon, honey and sugar, and is the king of our pastries,” Demirjian said.
“Our queen of pastries is the boorma, a flaky dough that is a lighter version of our paklava, with the same ingredients and a nice light sugary sauce,” she added.
Frozen lahmejune, or flat meat pies, will also be available for sale to take home by the dozen, Demirjian noted.
“These are flat, like a pizza but with no cheese, and a meat topping along with spices, peppers, onions and other vegetables,” she said.
To add to the festivities, live music to sit back and tap your toes or to get up on your feet and dance, will be provided by Hye Echoes.
Visitors can even do a little shopping at this year’s fest where a “country store” has been set up to sell cracker bread, grains, dried flowers, a yogurt drink called tahn, Armenian coffee and more.
For those feeling lucky, Anita Assarian will have some fun predicting fortunes as she reads the future from coffee residue left in a cup after drinking.
This year’s Armenian Fest will also feature live cooking and dancing demonstrations.
“We are currently preparing a video cookbook for sale and will be running a sample of it near the bake table showing the preparations for several of the baked items we will be selling,” Demirjian said .
T o keep the kids entertained, there will be games and a bounce house.
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