Azerbaijani cuisine
The location has enabled the people to develop a varied diet rich in produce, milk products, and meat, including beef, mutton, fish and game.
The location, which was contested by many historical kingdoms, khanates, and empires, also meant that Azerbaijani cuisine was influenced by the culinary traditions of multiple different cultures, including Turkic, Iranian, and Eastern European, and many dishes of Armenian and Georgian cuisine with Turkic names are widespread in Azerbaijan.
Contemporary Azerbaijan cuisine retains the traditional methods of preparing dishes while incorporating modern cooking.
[2] Azerbaijani cuisine utilizes fruits and vegetables such as aubergine, tomato, sweet pepper, spinach, cabbage, onion, sorrel, beet, radish, cucumber, and green beans.
Fresh herbs, including mint, coriander, dill, basil, parsley, tarragon, leek, chive, thyme, marjoram, green onion, and watercress often accompany main dishes.
Sturgeon, a common fish, is normally skewered and grilled as a shashlik, served with a tart pomegranate sauce called narsharab.
[5] The Azerbaijani breakfast is heavy in dairy products such as butter, various types of white cheese, and cream, as well as honey, tandoori bread and eggs, traditionally prepared into kuku, but alternatively, also scrambled.
Azerbaijani cuisine has a number of light snacks and side dishes to open or accompany the main meals: a plate of green leaves called goy, pieces of chorek (bread), choban (a tomato and cucumber salad), white cheese or qatik (sour yogurt) and turshu (pickles).
Apart from the cuts of meat, Azerbaijani cuisine features the use of head, legs, tails and intestines of animals in numerous dishes.
Azerbaijani cuisine also features a variety of seafood, especially fish which is obtained from the Caspian Sea as well as the Kura and Aras rivers.
Since plov is a heavy, fatty food, it is traditionally served together with sour drinks such as ayran, black tea with lemon, or verjuice.
[21] Other spices widely used in Azerbaijani cuisine include anise, cumin, cinnamon, thyme, coriander seeds, curcuma, sumac, caraway, bay leaves, mint, dill, parsley, celery, tarragon, and basil.
The former, a layer of chopped nuts sandwiched between mats of thread-like fried dough, is a specialty of Shaki in northwest Azerbaijan.
The usual conclusion to a restaurant meal is a plate of fresh fruit that is in season, such as plums, cherries, apricots, or grapes.
Sherbets (not to be confused with sorbet ices) are of Iranian origin and they may differ greatly in consistency, from very thick and jam-like (as in Tajik cuisine) to very light and liquid, as in Azerbaijan.
[34] Sherbets are typically prepared in the following natural flavors: Locally made brands of bottled water include the following:[36] Unlike multiple other countries with a predominantly Muslim population, alcohol consumption in Azerbaijan is entirely legal, and a variety of alcoholic drinks, both locally produced and imported can be found in shops and bars across the country.
In the Khanlar district of the Azerbaijan Republic, for example, archeologists have found jars buried with the remains of wine dating back to the 2nd millennium BC.
Archeological findings in this region speak of ancient vessels for wine storage, stones and remains of tartaric acid used for wine-growing.
Of the domestically produced beers, the most widely distributed is Xirdalan named after the city of Xırdalan in Azerbaijan, formerly brewed by Baki-Castel (BGI) but bought by Baltika in 2008.
Fruit preserves of all kinds, traditionally served alongside tea, are a ubiquitous sighting at family gatherings and festivities in Azerbaijan.
