Yesterday my host family had a large khash party. Khash is made from cow’s hooves (legs) and tripe (cow intestines). It is absolutely the worst thing I have ever eaten in my life!
Khash is a very traditional soup for this region of Armenia. Three days before the event Emma (host mom) bought two cows’ legs and tripe, which was in a large rectangle about ½ inch thick and white and gelatinous. Albert (host dad) scraped the hairs off the legs and then cut them across into about three inch sections. Then the leg pieces and tripe were soaked overnight. The outer dark part of the hooves then separated from the bones. Then they were boiled for a short time, the water was changed, and they were set to boil overnight in a huge pot of water over several gas burners. The smell was terrible. Early yesterday Emma cut the tripe up into smaller sections and added a few spices (garlic and pepper) to the pot.
The party began at one in the afternoon. Each guest was served a bowl of the soup with a section of the leg in it and a piece of tripe. It had absolutely no flavor until you added garlic and salt. It was also extremely greasy from all the fat. Guests tore up small pieces of lavash (like tortillas) and put it into the soup, to give it the consistency of mush with chewy lobs of fatty gelatinous tissue in it. There was no meat to speak of. I am the only person in the group who did not think that this meal was nirvana. Lots of vodka was consumed. Albert was in heaven!
(Below: Bowl of khash soup, men eating and drinking lots of vodka, desert: fresh fruit, dried fruit, bowl of nuts, bowl of candies, and pastries from New Year's!)
(Expectant men, kitchen preparations, home canned cauliflower, okra, and unknown things, and food accompaniments. Note "green" string cheese in left side of picture, a Gyumri specialty!)
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