We headed to a local farm-like private "restaurant" located in a rather quiet place surrounded by a garden.
As we were preparing ourselves to start eating we were called out to watch the whole process of lavash (flat bread) making.
The tonir, or oven in which lavash is baked is normally a large cylindrical clay structure sunk into the ground.
A fire is lit in the bottom of the tonir and the actual baking begins when the walls of the oven are hot, once the lavash is cooked on its walls (contrary to meat which is suspended within the tonir over the glowing fuel).
Traditional lavash dough consists of flour, salt and water, not having any yeast nor buttermilk added to it.
When several women from the same family or village get together to make lavash one woman is in charge of rolling out pieces of dough on a floured baking board, whilst the second one stretches the dough into very thin sheets by throwing it to and fro in the air and then laying it on a special padded cushion-like board, a batat, which has a handle on the non-padded side.
It is said that the dough should be stretched to about 30x60 cm and should not be more than 1 and a 1/2 mm thick. The dough is then firmly applied with the batat to the wall of the tonir to cook.
This is said to take just a brief moment. It is then removed from the tonir with a long metal hook and added to the pile of already cooked lavash.
The skill lies on judging the adequate moment in which the lavash has got to be removed from the tonir, with the oldest member of the group being granted this particularly important task.
We had (not that we were expecting it to be different) a very good meal and were soon ready for some further "exploration" of Armenia, with it being our last day for visits within the territory.
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