Experience says that best, meaning tasty and ecologically safe watermelons are usually available in Azerbaijan starting each August...but of course watermelons start to appear in June, July...Elder people wisely say that these must be either greenhouse watermelons or at least not sweet and juicy enough ones...but of course later they give up and here watermelon season is officially open...
Now I must say that in Azerbaijan (as most probably in many other places) watermelons are not bought in slices...but are bought as one (at least) whole watermelon...
Let me also mention here one Azeri phrase which is "əli boş"...which means "empty handed" and "əli dolu" which means "full handed"...these are notions that everyone inherits here genetically...thus anyone who visits someone else would usually take something in his/her hands...box of chocolates, some other sweets (the list can get creative depending if visited place has children, elder people, occasions etc etc)...So in summer one of the best options is...to get a watermelon and take it to the household you visit...the only risk is how delicious would be the watermelon...there are many tricks on choosing the watermelon, the one I know is to "knock" on the berry (yes, watermelon is a berry :) and the sound of good fruit would be sonorous (found this word in dictionary, meaning that it has to be a clear sound :). Many sellers would agree to cut the fruit so that you can check at least the colour but the real guru is the person who can choose without cutting and if the choice is good then the "chooser" is the star of the evening when the fruit is cut and shared among all and everyone is praising the choice and how sweet, refreshing and juicy and tasty the watermelon is :))
There is another tradition that I will try to explain, the circle around "tail" of the watermelon is demonstratively cut, then divided to four pieces, then everyone makes a wish and the pieces are thrown on the ground, depending on the combination that people thought of they would know if their wishes come true :) I am not sure about origin of this habit and maybe this is a confusing description but this is extra fun that is added to the session of cutting the watermelon and causes extra laughter and joy :)
I am almost over...but there is another thing that I must mention besides I have good pictures for that :) ... watermelon goes best with white cheese and also depending how hungry you are with thin bread made in "təndir", tandir bread (I hope you know about tandir, this requires a separate post :) This combination is very tasty, believe me :)
watermelons everywhere...
concept of "əli dolu" i.e. "full handed"
watermelon and cheese combination - almost a must on Azeri table...
ad which talks re above :) ...it says...watermelon and cheese...love story on your table :))
9 comments:
Ayten, I loved your story:)) I miss seeing somebody bringing garpiz over or taking garpiz over to somebody to be in tune with the ali dolu thing:) Pendir and qapiz go great together! I remember taking these two plus tendir chorek and tomatoes to beach while in Baku. I can't imagine the reaction of people here in California is they see me cut open a huge garpiz at the beach:)) So, I am not even trying:))
Totally agree on Qarpiz and Pendir. They go really well together. But Ayten I think you missed a very important point in your post. That is that the local sort (Azerbaijani sort of watermelon) of the watermelon has almost disappeared from markets and the country becuase of the American sort of watermelon. Now almost all watermelons in the country, including the ones in your picture are American (so called Shaban sort of watermelon) watermelons. They occupied Azerbaijani markets thanks to USAID supported distribution of the American watermelon seeds to farmers in late 1990s and early 2000s. As the American sort of watermelon is more productive, almost always sweet and red (very little chance that you can find un-ripe, non-red and not-sweet American sort watermelons compared to national sort of the watermelon), farmers easly adopted it and get rid of the national sort. So bad for the national natural gene fund of the country. May be national sort of the watermelon wasn't always enough red or sweet and required real expertise to choose the best, but it was healthier and most importantly it was ours, our watermelon, that we lost or close to loosing completely if someone didn't keep the seeds :-(
And, what about mini-watermelons in Azerbaijan??
I love every type of watermelon!!!
Delicious photo! Looks like a healthy treat! Kind regards from EAGAN daily photo in Minnesota, USA
I found your blog from looking at beautiful pictures on another blog: http://coskunphotos.blogspot.com/
I have been to Azerbaijan and was able to just spend a few hours in Sheki. It is a beautiful country with very friendly people. I hope to be able to come back again someday.
Ayten,
I enjoy reading your blog.
Keep writing, you are doing a great job! And pictures are very nice.
it's funny that in Egypt governmental employees are usually depicted as fat bald men carrying a watermelon in 1 hand and a newspaper in the other :d
Water melons are good source of Vitamin C. I really love them . The blog post is nice as well as the pics
Oh, my mother reminded me of garpiz-tendir combination this time! I enjoy either Indian or Turkish watermelon and a white turkish cheese. this is unfortunately, the closest I can get to proper (azeri) tasting garpiz in the UK...:((
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