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Food & Drink
A restaurant and cafe culture is starting to flourish again in Armenia, with street stalls and privately run establishments replacing the colourless state restaurants typical of the Soviet era. New cafes and restaurants are now opening daily. Many of the cafes are in parks, and are very popular in summer with locals and tourists alike. Much Armenian cooking is based on lamb, either grilled and served as shashlik with flat bread, or prepared as soup (the most popular being bozbash, a dish which exists in infinite variations) or stew, often in combination with fruit or nuts. The newly butchered sheep carcasses hanging from trees near most khorovats (barbecued meat) stalls, although perhaps appearing somewhat gruesome to foreign visitors, testify to the freshness of the meat sizzling on the grill. A meal usually starts with a large spread of hors d’oeuvres, which may include peppers and vine leaves stuffed with rice and meat, pickled and fresh vegetables, salty white sheep’s cheese eaten with fresh green herbs and flat bread, and various kinds of cured meat (basturma). Almost magical, health-giving properties are ascribed to dried apricots from the Caucasus. Another desert speciality is made from grape juice, dried into thin sheets of a deep, reddish brown colour, and then rolled up into long cylinders around walnuts or other nuts. The ’ishkan’ salmon trout from Lake Sevan is proclaimed as a great delicacy, but it is now seldom available.
Armenian brandies are excellent. Production of Armenian wines and brandies suffered during Mikhail Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol drive in the 1980s, but locals are still proud to inform visitors that Winston Churchill always insisted on Armenian in preference to French brandy, after first tasting it at the Yalta conference. During the season following the grape harvest, locals sell effervescent, mildly fermented grape juice from roadside stands. Coffee is served Turkish-style – strong and black in tiny cups – although in view of national sensibilities visitors would be ill-advised to refer to this cultural similarity.

Nightlife
There are restaurants and nightclubs featuring local music in Yerevan. Several new restaurants, clubs and discos have opened recently. There are several casinos. Opera, theatre and ballet performances are of a high standard, and tickets are cheap (about the equivalent of US$5).

Shopping
Although Armenia’s economy is still relatively undeveloped, new shops are now opening. The Vernisaj flea market in Yerevan attracts sellers of all kinds of goods and is popular with tourists. Shopping hours: Mon-Fri 0900-1700. Shops stay open longer in the summer.

Special Events
For details of events in Armenia, contact the Armenian Tourist Office (see Contact Addresses section). The following is a selection of special events occurring in Armenia in 2005:
Jan New Year’s Celebrations, nationwide. Jan 6 Armenian Christmas. Jun Water Day, nationwide. Sep 21 Independence Day.

Social Conventions
Almost all entertaining takes place in private homes, and guests may find themselves subjected to overwhelming hospitality and generosity, as well as being expected to eat enormously and participate in endless toasts. Visitors invited to an Armenian’s home should arrive bearing some kind of small gift, such as flowers and alcohol (preferably imported) or chocolates. Handshaking is the normal form of greeting. Business cards are invariably exchanged at any kind of official meeting and not infrequently on first meeting people socially as well. Conversation tends to be highly politicised, and guests may be well advised to avoid expressing strong opinions. Women tend to be less retiring than in nearby Muslim countries. Tipping: Expected by waiters and doormen in restaurants – sometimes in advance to ensure service. Taxi fares should always be negotiated before starting a journey, and visitors should be aware that rates proposed initially are likely to be unreasonably high, in the expectation that foreigners will have unlimited cash and little idea of how much they ought to be paying. It is therefore advisable to make enquiries about ‘going rates’ per kilometre of travel before entering into negotiations with taxi drivers. The same applies to market stall holders and so on.