What kind of «sauce» should Armenian cuisine be served under? — reflections on culinary practices and ethnic identity

Abstract

It is possible to study Armenian cuisine as a category of practice, as an expression existing in the language. In other words, through the analysis of the content that Armenian informants put into the concept of «national cuisine», it is proposed to explore one of the ways of narrativizing ethnicity. This is done in a comparative perspective, therefore, among the informants are not only Armenians, but also Azerbaijanis, Georgians, Iranians, Talysh.
In general, informants of different nationalities share common views about national cuisine (national dishes should be exclusive, identical dishes mean borrowing, similarity is expected from their own cuisine) and use similar rhetorical turns. The structure of any narrative about national cuisine is based on the enumeration of dishes. However, the sets of dishes and some related narratives, their hierarchy and the range of toponyms mentioned differ depending on which ethnic group the informants identify themselves with.