Eating Eurovision: Azerbaijani food in London

“Most Europeans find this shocking,” said Vusal.

I steeled myself.

“But we like to take jam with our tea.”

“You put jam in your tea?” I asked, my English sensibilities on the verge of being shaken.

“No. We eat a spoonful of jam, and then drink some tea,” said Vusal.

If this was as controversial as Azerbaijani food could get, there was still hope for me.

Just my luck

At the country draw for the Eating Eurovision project at the BBC the night before I’d blind-picked the ‘Azerbaijan’ ping pong ball out the bag and thought ‘Why me?’ Finding an authentic food experience of the corresponding country within the M25 and with only 25 hours to do it was not going to be easy, I thought. But I soon changed my mind.

Earlier that evening I’d spoken to a rather tall blogger named Patrick who’s currently eating his way through the restaurants of London, country by country. I remembered him saying he’d reached the Bahamas in his alphabetical quest. How had he tackled Azerbaijan?

“Try Azeri on Edgeware Road,” he said.

It was as simple as that.

On the one hand it was a relief. On the other I felt foiled.

I’d taken the day off work just in case I’d ended up with one of the more obscure countries from the Eurovision final. I was ready to invest time and energy into coming up with something good, something fresh. I wasn’t going to be put off that easily.

Drive and determination

I decided that Azeri would be my back up. I would make an all-out assault on London’s Azerbaijani community in search of The Scoop.

Early the next morning I did what anyone would do in an Azerbaijan-related emergency — I called the embassy.

“Try Azeri on Edgeware Road,” said the thick Azerbaijani-accented voice on the telephone.

“Aren’t there any food shops? No other restaurants?” I asked.

The man laughed.

“No, there’s just Azeri on Edgeware Road.”

Fine. I got it. But I still didn’t want to take his word for it. After all, if you’re working at the embassy you probably spend more time at ambassador’s receptions and dodging the congestion charge than you do getting down and dirty with the London Azerbaijani community.

Another top Google hit was Azerbaijan House on Kingsland Road. I called several times and left a message but to no avail. Midday was fast approaching so that was lunch out of the question. I got desperate. I called the Caspian-Khazri Azerbaijan School (“I know this is a school, but…”), left messages on an Azerbaijani youth forum, emailed the South Azerbaijanis Association in the UK. In the meantime I arranged to meet my friend and photographer at Azerbaijan House. If I wasn’t going to be able to talk to anyone there I was damned if I wasn’t going to at least get a picture of it.

Further confirmation

As I hopped on the 149 my phone rang. The Caspian-Khazri school was returning my call.

“There are no Azerbaijani shops in London. I’m going to text you the name and address of the only Azerbaijani restaurant,” she said.

‘AZERI, EDGEWARE ROAD, W2 1EG.’

Oh well.

It didn’t take long to get to Azerbaijan House. We rang the buzzer and waited. It didn’t look promising. We rang again. Finally a voice picked up at the other end of the intercom. I introduced myself.

“I just got your answerphone message, I was going to call you back! Please, come in.”

Vusal Hamzayev is a student and a volunteer at Azerbaijani House, an organisation that aims to forge bonds between Azerbaijanis living in the UK and their host country. Vusal apologised for the disorder of the centre’s main hall where a Eurovision semi-final celebration had been held the night before. He sat us down, made us tea and had all the time in the world for our questions.

He confirmed that yes, Azeri is the only address for Azerbaijani food in London, but quickly I began to realise how lucky I was that there was even just the one.

Azerbaijani immigration into the UK is a relatively recent phenomenon, beginning in the early 1990s with the lifting of the Iron Curtain. Vusal says there are a maximum of 5000 Azerbaijanis registered as living in the UK, the actual number of residents being anyone’s guess. Vusal says students account for a large number of these expatriates. Some Azerbaijani families have made the move to the UK, but this is rare.

Azerbaijani alternatives

Unsurprisingly Azerbaijani cuisine is similar to that of border countries such as Turkey and Russia, making familiar food relatively well available in London. Dishes central to Azerbaijani cuisine are ‘plovlar’ — or pilaffs in English — and kebabs.

Pilaffs come in many varieties depending on taste and region. Vusal’s favourite is turkey or chicken cooked under rice on a low flame for many hours.

Azerbaijani kebabs are cooked on skewers and were as an Eastern food gained popularity during the Soviet era as a way of rejecting the Soviet regime.

Another favourite is dolmas, which are a mix of rice, meat and spices encased in almost any vegetable and put in the oven. Vusal pointed out that Azerbaijani dolmas differ from Turkish dolmas in that the inclusion of meat is not optional.

“We need meat,” he said. “Azerbaijani food is a heavy food. I’m surprised more Azerbaijanis aren’t fat.”

After an overview of soups, salads and sweets, a discussion on the importance of tea, and over an hour of Vusal’s enthusiastic explanations and amiable company, we felt not only well prepared but also pretty excited about dinner at Azeri’s.

The proof is in the eating

Azeri’s is a restaurant in the basement of a daytime café north of Edgeware Road tube station on the Edgeware Road. Decorated with pictures, tapestries, musical instruments and the ubiquitous wall rug, the restaurant felt cosy and homely, an impression compounded by the warm welcome offered to us by our host.

“My restaurant is the first Azeribaijani restaurant in London,” he said. “It is also, I think, the last.”

Tea after tea was served alongside a bowl of sweets (possibly a jam-replacement) as we were given all the time we needed to peruse the well-annotated and illustrated menu. Following some of Vusal’s recommendations we eventually went with:

• Bahar Salad — A starter of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and herbs
• Kelem Dolmasi — Cabbage leaves stuffed with minced lamb, onions, rice, chestnuts, peas, tomatoes and herbs
• Dushbara — The national soup. A broth flavoured with mint containing scores of tiny lamp dumplings, served with pickles and bread
• Kartof Kebabi — Special mashed potato chargrilled on skewers, served with grilled tomatoes and fresh onions
• Toyug Lavangi — Half chicken stuffed with walnuts, onions and butter, served with rice

The salad fresh and simple, but with an Azerbaijani twist of being  delicately spiced right through. The cabbage dolmas were mouthwateringly delicious. For heavy food it was remarkably light on the tongue, with a the tang of tomato adding a kick to the balanced mix of rice and lamb.

The dushbara was like the work of a master craftsman— so many tiny handmade dumplings, again light and easy to eat. Our host instructed me to measure our vinegar on a spoon before adding it to the soup to my own taste.

For me the mashed potato kebabs stole the show. Infused with the smoke of the chargrill and flavoured with herbs and spices, the bright yellow sausages of potato were so rich and complex in flavour I almost couldn’t believe I was essentially eating mash.

The chicken was tender and buttery, its stuffing rich and sweet. The rice was fluffy and dotted with plump and juicy sultanas. I felt as though eating a special occasion dinner, the equivalent of Christmas lunch.

We took our time, as encouraged to by our host. By the end we were the only diners in the restaurant, and still there was no pressure. The atmosphere was familial, the attention of the restaurant family on what looked like an Azerbaijani talent show being shown on a Russian satellite channel. What we couldn’t finish was boxed up for us with pleasure, our host seemingly overjoyed that we had loved our first experience of Azerbaijani cuisine.

I wish I could tell you how much we paid for our meal, but our host ridiculously refused to take any money from us.

“You can pay next time,” he laughed.

It was unbelievable. The warmth and hospitality shown to us by both the family at Azeri and by Vusal at Azerbaijan House just blew our minds. We’d stepped out of one comfort zone only to arrive in another. Yet it was challenging.

In just one day we’d been offered such an insight into the culture of a country I wouldn’t have been able to point to on a map until yesterday afternoon. Azerbaijan is now on my list of countries to visit, but the fact remains that the potential for ‘travel’ within London is overwhelming. Boundaries were pushed, horizons extended, and not a spoonful of jam in sight.

Source: http://canelvr.wordpress.com/2009/05/16/eating-eurovision-azerbaijani-food-in-london/