I’m told that Armenians are mocked by their
Caucasian neighbors because they don’t have a McDonald’s. Tbilisi has two, and there are apparently a
lot in Baku. However, I'm happy to report that the indigenous fast food scene is thriving.
The first shwarma place that I went to
continues to be amazing. One day I went and was devastated to find that there
was no shwarma. But they had kebabs, which were nearly as good. Here’s a photo
of the man in action:
Not pictured: the cooler stocked with 30
different kinds of vodka to go along with your shwarma.
There’s also Mr Toaster, which does very
nice toasted sandwiches and Salad Smak, which is not particularly good but
seems to have several branches:
And then there's Yum Yum Donuts, which is a
faithful copy of Dunkin’ Donuts, down to the puffy font they use. They have
tasty American coffee and even though I don’t like donuts I had a great caramel
chocolate donut there – yum yum indeed. And it’s really popular – there’s an
art school around the corner and it’s a sort of hangout for the students there. I had two different people suggest we conduct interviews there.
And this is all just around my hotel, who knows what sort of wonders await in other parts of Yerevan. Today I hit the road for smaller parts of Armenia, so it
will be no more fast food, only home cooking.
Not having a McDonald's is no handicap in this homogenized world.
Head over to Proshian Street for some khorovadz (BBQ).
Posted by: R | May 25, 2007 at 03:40 PM
Yum-Yum is an actual American franchise if I understand correctly. In any case there are Yum Yum Donuts in Orange County, CA.
Posted by: Raffi Kojian | May 26, 2007 at 02:20 AM
Have you tried lahmajo? There's a 24hr stand across from The Club on Tumanyan that sells nice lahmajo, but my favorite is a place on Mashtots just before you turn left onto Amiryan. It's called Ost, I think, and they serve good lahmajo prepared over a wood fire instead of in an oven.
Posted by: Myrthe | May 26, 2007 at 06:21 AM