This introduction to Armenian cuisine includes celebratory dishes and simple, everyday staples.

Serious Eats / Andrew Janjigian

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Armenian food is a study in contrasts: indulgent and celebratory on one hand, and humble and nourishing on the other. Historical Armenia, which includes the current-day Armenian Republic along with much of what is now part of Eastern Turkey, was a mountainous, isolated, and relatively poor region. With limited access to the outside world, Armenians learned to make do with what they had, particularly during their long winters.

Armenians were (and many remain) a very religious people (it is a point of pride for many that the Kingdom of Armenia was the first nation to make Christianity its state religion, way back in 303 AD).…