Choereg

When I was young, I remember coming to that question that every child asks at some point or another. I walked over to my mom, tugged on her pant leg. She looked down inquiringly, and I asked "Mom, what kind of bread do Armenians eat to celebrate Easter?" She smiled with that matronly glance, and fixed her eyes on some far off thought. "One day you'll know for sure," she said, and I swear there was the shadow of a tear in her eye.

A few months ago, the long culmination began, when we came across a recipe for Choereg, or Armenian Easter Bread. The next step was to head to Aladdin's Market in search of mahleb, which we learned is somewhere in the cinnamon/nutmeg genre. Then all that remained was to find a block of time at home, and a ton of butter, and we pulled the above loaves out of our oven. One of our pastors, Bob Lynn, who has visited Armenia a number of times (which, by the way, is an actual country, adjacent to Turkey, with a fascinating history) tells us that their bread is made is meter-long loaves baked in holes in the ground and then stored up in their rafters. Hmm... maybe. But not apparently on Easter.

The above baking experiment had two immediate effects. First, it heated up our kitchen nicely, whilst we wait for a new heater installation starting tomorrow. Second, it gave me the irresistible compulsion to speak about my imaginary childhood on Santorini, except I used a faux-Italian accent to do it. In turn, this had the effect of causing Rachel to reluctantly smile and shake her head woefully.