Eggplant

“There are many varieties of eggplant, and the Armenians eat every variety they can find, whenever they’re in season,” says Ghazarian. “We don’t really care what the variety of eggplant is — white, purple, striped. We’ll eat ’em all. What we care about is the size.” That’s because the size determines how the eggplant will be used. A medium to large specimen might be pureed with tahini into baba ghanoush, fried then topped with yogurt, or sliced and grilled with olive oil. The narrow, smaller kind can end up stuffed or pickled.

Olives

“Unlike at a western table, you will never sit down at an Armenian table that doesn’t already have food on it,” says Ghazarian. That food includes hummus, flat breads, cheeses, and, always, olives. “Armenians tend to like the darker olives, similar to the Greek varieties, like kalamata,” she says. In addition to being an appetizer staple, olives are often a breakfast item, eaten with bread and cheese. Ghazarian loves a kalamata-olive spread made with walnuts, tomato paste, cayenne, and cumin, as well as a black-olive and yogurt-cheese spread. Of course, you can also just pop olives in your mouth like candy.

Sumac

“The most common spices in Armenian cuisine — black pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, sesame seeds, and black caraway seeds — are well-known and used throughout the United States,” Ghazarian says. But the one spice you need to make your meals truly Armenian is sumac, she says. “Everybody in the U.S. thinks of poison sumac when you say that. Let’s get past that now.” Sumac is actually a wild bush that grows throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East, and its berries (which are not poisonous) are pulverized into a burgundy-colored spice that has a tangy, zesty, lemonlike flavor. You can sprinkle it on steamed vegetables, on top of hummus, or as a garnish for a yogurt-based or squash soup. “I defy you to find sumac spice anywhere in the United States other than in an Armenian market — it’s distinctive to this cuisine.”

Paklava

Known as “baklava” in Greek, this is a layered dessert made of walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon stuffed between layers of phyllo dough. It’s baked and served in triangles.

Bourma

This is the same thing as paklava, but in a different shape — a tube. “It’s the same recipe,” says Ghazarian. “It’s rolled around a wooden dowel and then crunched during the cooking process so that it looks like those dogs with all the wrinkles in their faces, and then the dowel is pulled out. It’s sold in finger-length tubes.”

Fried Dough with Sugar Syrup

This is exactly what it sounds like. “It’s sinfully sweet — hurt-your-teeth sweet,” Ghazarian warns. “It’s an acquired taste.”

Halva

Essentially, blocks made of tahini, sugar, and flour, this dessert can be eaten on flat bread. “You can put sliced bananas on top, or sometimes it comes with pistachio nuts on it,” says Ghazarian. “Or you can eat it plain.”