Everything Looks Cooler In Armenian.

The Armenian alphabet is quite frankly amazing. If you ever produce a sci-fi series and need to invent an authentically alien-looking alphabet, use Armenian. On reflection, not the most politically correct sentence I’ve ever written, but I do genuinely mean it in a good way. Armenian looks phenomenally cool. Below is Article 1 from the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

In Armenian, this is:

I think we all know which one looks cooler. And that’s not even using italics. If you don’t think this is the greatest alphabet ever, I will fight you. That’s no lie.

 

The reason I mention this is because it came up when I was researching what was introduced to me as the “Lulu burger”, an Armenian-American classic. It is a very savoury, spiced lamb and beef burger, which is quite probably what God cooks on his barbecue when he feels he deserves a treat.

The city of Fresno, California is in many ways the home of the Lulu burger. Although Fresno no longer has the biggest Armenian-American community in California, the community is one of the oldest and most significant in the history of the Armenian Diaspora in the US. California’s first Armenian-language newspaper began publication there in 1908. Conversely, the community has played its own part in the development of Fresno. Fresno is, overwhelmingly, a farming community. It’s a farming city. It has a million people, and the reason  it is there is fruit farming. Figs, melons, grapes, olives, avocados. The famous Sun-Maid girl (see right) is a portrait of a Fresno girl. You could almost say that fruit-farming was the city’s raisin d'être. And it was Armenian pioneers who first grew figs and melons in the Fresno area.

Back on the meatier side of things, if you google the term “Lulu Burger” it’s quite hard to find what I’m talking about. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, there’s no agreement about how to spell- or say- the word. You get varying levels of success when you search for Lulu Burgers, Lule Burgers or Lula Burgers. On the Russian-language Wikipedia article, for example, it comes out as “Lulya”. Unfortunately, I don’t know enough Armenian to be able to research it in the source language.

The Russian page raises another issue. The second word of the page title looks like our word for kebab. That’s because it’s the Russian word for kebab; i.e. Kebab. So suddenly you have a choice of Lula/Lule/Lulu Kebaburgers. Is it a burger or a kebab? In Armenia- and many Armenian-American restaurants- it’s definitely a kebab.

But to my mind, burger is better. It’s not Armenian food, it’s Armenian-American food. That’s fine. Eat it in a good bun, with pickles (very Armenian) and ketchup (not). And a big pile of chips. The combination of both lamb and beef gives the burger a meatier, less overtly sheepy flavour than a pure lamb burger, while retaining more interest than an old-fashioned hamburger. Here’s my recipe, adapted from one on www.armeniapedia.org :-

Lulu Burgers

½ lb each of lamb mince and good steak mince.
⅓ cup dry bread crumbs
1 med onion, chopped fine
2 crushed cloves garlic
⅓ cup chopped parsley
¼ tsp. allspice
⅓ cup passata
⅓-½ cup water
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
generous teaspoon of cumin

Mix all ingredients together. Shape into patties.

Grill close to heat. Turn over when brown, about 7 min. per side.