DAMMAM: In recent years, Turkey and Armenia have been locked in a culinary squabble over who “owns” what. UNESCO’s 2011 decision to declare keskek — a ceremonial wheat and meat porridge — an intangible cultural heritage of Turkey has angered the Armenians. They claim keskek is, in fact, their centuries-old porridge known as harissa.
When lavash, the unleavened flatbread, made it on to UNESCO’s list as an “expression of Armenian culture,” protesters in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan asserted that lavash does not originate or belong solely to Armenia. Similarly, did the lamadjo originate in Armenia, or do the Turkish make the most authentic lahmacun?
As the debate continues between Armenians and the Turks or the Azerbaijanis, one thing is for sure: Saudis cannot get enough of Armenian cuisine and its assimilation into Levantine cooking. Reputedly the first Armenian restaurant in Saudi Arabia, Lusin — with three branches in the country; Riyadh, Jeddah and now Alkhobar — bears testament to that popularity.
When owners Mira Foods Company found Saudi tourists frequenting Armenian restaurants in Jordan and Lebanon, they decided to bring Armenian fine dining to Saudi Arabia in 2009. Lusin, the Armenian word for “moon,” is a product of transporting the culture and cuisine of Armenia to Saudi Arabia.
Lusin’s restaurants can best be described as present-day Armenian, with modern elements like sleek light fixtures and a modish ambience coexisting alongside a rich heritage. The walls are tiled with the pink tuff stone found in the Yerevan region of Armenia. It is a peculiar shade of pink that is reminiscent of the Pink City, but it gives the interior the feel of an upscale restaurant.
Common in California, New York and Paris, Armenian food is now gaining traction in London and the Arab world. Typical to Armenian cuisine is the use of fresh and seasonal produce like pomegranates, apricots, prunes, apples, pears, grapes, eggplants, pumpkins, walnuts, pine nuts, herbs, and also cracked wheat, meat, and dairy products.
Developed by Armenian culinary expert and author Anahid Doniguian, the menu at Lusin is as close to Armenian heritage as you can get. To start our fine dining experience, freshly baked lavash bread was served with a creamy walnut dip. Soon after, we were given a rich pumpkin soup and crisp, fiery potatoes.
The authentic itch is a piquant red salad made with bulgur wheat, parsley and tomato sauce, which makes it a tantalizing treat for the taste buds. Departing from the usual dolma, try the yalanji grape leaves, stuffed leaves served with fermented matzoon yogurt.
Not to be missed are Lusin’s signature eggplant rolls: Chargrilled eggplant slices rolled and stuffed with a cream and walnut paste and pomegranate seeds, lending it a tangy flavor that complements the velvety texture and smoky flavor of the eggplant.
Moving on to the hot entrees, we tried the Lusin kibbeh, made of bulgur and meat and garnished with pine nuts and pomegranate molasses. The sujuc rolls — dried beef sausage baked into soft dough — are like nothing you will have tasted before.
“As Armenian winters are hard, natives are known to prepare food during the summer and store it in pots or in the cellar to survive the winter. It is said that Armenians can throw a winter wedding banquet without having to visit a supermarket,” Doniguian explains.
From the mains, we tried the house favorite, cherry kebab — spiced kebab served with a cherry puree — which makes for an interesting mix of sweet and sour flavors. However, the star of the evening was the gapama. “The traditional Armenian gapama is a wedding dish, usually presented to the newlyweds by a group of young boys and girls in a dance,” Doniguian says.
Here, in an elaborate process, a pumpkin is stuffed with rice, meat, herbs and nuts, and baked in a tanour for four hours. The result is a succulent pumpkin, sliced to reveal a hearty rice and meat dish soaked with juices from the sweet pumpkin.
For dessert, we tried the rose ice-cream topped with cotton candy and the traditional Armenian maamoul stuffed with cheese, cardamom and nuts, and doused with sugar syrup. In between sinful bites of the maamoul, we were sure to sip from shots of orange blossom tea.
Lusin promises to be a fine-dining experience, but it offers much more: Authentic Armenian food, a cultural experience and, most importantly, a glimpse of the renowned Armenian hospitality.
Armenian cuisine at Saudi Arabia’s Lusin restaurant eclipses the competition
Armenian cuisine at Saudi Arabia’s Lusin restaurant eclipses the competition
Saudi business delegation to arrive in Pakistan Sunday to explore investment opportunities — minister
- Musadik Malik says Saudi investment will mainly benefit small technology firms run by young Pakistani students
- He informs the two sides have also discussed a new refinery for export purposes that will help with foreign revenue
ISLAMABAD: A high-level Saudi business delegation is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan tomorrow to explore investment opportunities in various economic sectors by holding meetings with private sector organizations, said Federal Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik during a media briefing held in Lahore on Saturday.
The two countries have witnessed a flurry of official visits in recent weeks, with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan traveling to Islamabad earlier in April, before Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s two-day visit to the kingdom to attend a World Economic Forum meeting and hold a number of meetings.
“The Saudi Deputy Investment Minister is visiting Pakistan tomorrow,” said Malik, who is also the focal person for Saudi-Pak bilateral collaboration. “He is bringing representatives from 30 to 35 companies whose CEOs are coming here.”
The Pakistani minister maintained his country had always cherished cordial ties with the kingdom, though it had not managed to turn this “relationship of friendship into a relationship of stability and progress.”
He said Pakistan mostly discussed its financial concerns with the Saudi authorities and requested their support. However, the present government wanted to change that by focusing its bilateral conversations on mutually beneficial progress and development, not aid and assistance.
The minister said the two sides discussed a new refinery project during the recent engagements that would be used for export purposes to earn foreign revenue. Additionally, food security was also discussed to further strengthen Pakistan’s agricultural sector.
He informed that Prime Minister Sharif wanted the country’s “private sector to take the lead on this path to progress.”
“That is why Saudi investors have been invited to come here,” he continued. “They will sit with Pakistani companies and figure out ways to connect the Pakistani talent with the capital and investment needed at the international level for the IT revolution.”
Malik said the bilateral collaboration would primarily benefit small businesses, particularly the technology companies established by young students who were likely to get significant amount of investment from Saudi entrepreneurs.
He expressed optimism that chemical, energy and agricultural companies would also gain advantage from the ongoing bilateral collaboration between the two sides.
Afghanistan’s only female diplomat resigns in India after gold smuggling allegations
- Zakia Wardak, the Afghan consul-general for Mumbai, announced her resignation on her official account on the social media platform X
- According to Indian media reports, she has not been arrested because of her diplomatic immunity
ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan’s diplomat in India, who was appointed before the Taliban seized power in 2021 and said she was the only woman in the country’s diplomatic service, has resigned after reports emerged of her being detained for allegedly smuggling gold.
Zakia Wardak, the Afghan consul-general for Mumbai, announced her resignation on her official account on the social media platform X on Saturday after Indian media reported last week that she was briefly detained at the city’s airport on allegations of smuggling 25 bricks of gold, each weighing 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds), from Dubai.
According to Indian media reports, she has not been arrested because of her diplomatic immunity.
In a statement, Wardak made no mention of her reported detention or gold smuggling allegations but said, “I am deeply sorry that as the only woman present in Afghanistan’s diplomatic apparatus, instead of receiving constructive support to maintain this position, I faced waves of organized attacks aimed at destroying me.”
“Over the past year, I have encountered numerous personal attacks and defamation not only directed toward myself but also toward her close family and extended relatives,” she added.
Wardak said the attacks have “severely impacted my ability to effectively operate in my role and have demonstrated the challenges faced by women in Afghan society.”
The Taliban Foreign Ministry did not immediately return calls for comment on Wardak’s resignation. It wasn’t immediately possible to confirm whether she was the country’s only female diplomat.
She was appointed consul-general of Afghanistan in Mumbai during the former government and was the first Afghan female diplomat to collaborate with the Taliban.
The Taliban — who took over Afghanistan in 2021 during the final weeks of US and NATO withdrawal from the country — have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed despite initial promises of a more moderate rule.
They are also restricting women’s access to work, travel and health care if they are unmarried or don’t have a male guardian, and arresting those who don’t comply with the Taliban’s interpretation of hijab, or Islamic headscarf.
Russia puts Ukraine's Zelensky on wanted list, TASS reports
- Russia has issued arrest warrants for a number of Ukrainian and other European politicians
MOSCOW: Russia has opened a criminal case against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and put him on a wanted list, the state news agency TASS reported on Saturday, citing the Interior Ministry's database.
The entry it cited gave no further details.
Russia has issued arrest warrants for a number of Ukrainian and other European politicians since the start of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian police in February put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuania's culture minister and members of the previous Latvian parliament on a wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments.
Russia also issued an arrest warrant for the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor who last year prepared a warrant for President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
- Reacting swiftly, Wang, a former soldier, positioned his truck to block the highway, effectively stopping dozens of vehicles from advancing into danger
- His wife got out of the truck to alert other drivers about the situation
BEIJING: A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country’s mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Wang Xiangnan was driving Wednesday along the highway in Guangdong province, a vital economic hub in southern China. At around 2 a.m., Wang saw several vehicles moving in the opposite direction of the four-lane highway and a fellow driver soon informed him about the collapse, local media reported.
Reacting swiftly, Wang, a former soldier, positioned his truck to block the highway, effectively stopping dozens of vehicles from advancing into danger, Jiupai News quoted Wang as saying. Meanwhile, his wife got out of the truck to alert other drivers about the situation, it said.
“I didn’t think too much. I just wanted to stop the vehicles,” Wang told the Chinese news outlet.
Wang’s courageous actions not only garnered praise from Chinese social media users but also recognition from the China Worker Development Foundation.
The foundation announced Friday that in partnership with a car company it had awarded Wang 10,000 yuan ($1,414). A charity project linked to tech giant Alibaba Group Holding also gave an equal amount to Wang, newspaper Dahe Daily reported. Wang told the newspaper he would donate the money to the families of the collapse victims.
Local media also reported that another man had knelt down to prevent cars from proceeding on the highway.
The accident came after a month of heavy rains in Guangdong. Some of the 23 vehicles that plunged into the deep ravine burst in flames, sending up thick clouds of smoke.
About 30 people were hospitalized. On Saturday, one was discharged from the hospital, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The others were improving, but one remains in serious condition.
On Saturday, the Meizhou city government in Guangdong said in a statement that authorities would conduct citywide checks on expressways, railways and roads in mountainous areas. A team led by the provincial governor is investigating the cause of the collapse, Southcn.com reported.
The Chinese government had sent a vice premier to oversee recovery efforts and urged better safety measures following calls by President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party’s No. 2 official, Premier Li Qiang, to swiftly handle the tragedy.
The dispatch of Zhang Guoqing, who is also a member of one of the ruling Communist Party’s leading bodies, illustrates the concern over a possible public backlash over the disaster, the latest in a series of deadly infrastructure failures.
Russia says it shot down four US-made long range missiles over Crimea
- The ATACMS missiles, with a range up to 300km were used for the first time in the early hours of April 17
MOSCOW: The Russian defense ministry said on Saturday its air defense forces shot down four US-produced long-range missiles over the Crimea peninsular, weapons known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) that Washington has shipped to Ukraine in recent weeks.
The ministry said later that Russian aircraft and air defense systems had downed a total of 15 ATACMS in the past week.
On Tuesday, Russian officials said Ukraine had attacked Crimea with ATACMS in an attempt to pierce Russian air defenses of the annexed peninsula but that six had been shot down.
A US official said in Washington last month that the United States secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine in recent weeks.
The ATACMS missiles, with a range up to 300km were used for the first time in the early hours of April 17, launched against a Russian airfield in Crimea that was about 165 km (103 miles) from the Ukrainian front lines, the official said.
The Pentagon initially opposed the long-range missile deployment, concerned that taking the missiles from the American stockpile would hurt US military readiness.
There were also concerns that Ukraine would use them to attack targets deep inside Russia, a step which could lead to an escalation of the war toward a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States.
Separately on Saturday, the Russian defense ministry said that in the last week its forces had destroyed a military train carrying equipment and arms produced in the West and supplied to Ukraine by NATO.
The scale of the damage, exact date and location were not disclosed.
Reuters is not immediately able to corroborate battlefield accounts from either side.
On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron promised 3 billion pounds ($3.7 billion) of annual military aid for Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” adding that London had no objection to its weapons being used inside Russia, drawing a strong rebuke from Moscow.
