Baking ARMENIAN GATA Bread + HUGE Feast in Armenia's Little Switzerland | Dilijan, Armenia

Okay, my turn to make the gata Close it. This is awesome Good morning, everyone. I hope you're all doing great. This is David Hoffman from David's been here in beautiful Dilijan, Armenia guys I am in awe right now. I just woke up. I'm staying here at the Daravan guest house. This place is awesome We are in the middle of a National Park. And as you can see, it's really really green out here Lots of beautiful mountains and yet today what we're doing is we're gonna have a simple breakfast right here at the guest house And then after this we're gonna go explore the National Park. We're gonna see some wildlife Hopefully see some deer then we're gonna see a monastery and we're gonna finish it off at a restaurant that does like traditional Old-school cooking methods so they make food like the old-school way here in Armenia. I'm super excited. Look at this star right here Hey, buddy You good? Beautiful this guest house. I slept like a baby last night. The food is delicious I'm about to have an Armenian coffee, which is like really really thick morning Morning, how are you? Amazing Armenian coffee. Oh, yeah Super strong guys. Oh just very thick. Oh now it's better before it was like too much Cheers We got Lavash with lavash. So we got lavash, which is the bread We have some eggs some cheese some honey very simple breakfast. Oh, I can't wait Let's eat gonna make myself like an egg sandwich guys. Look you got the lavash Throw the egg on top, right? Crumble the cheese a little bit like all over it after you just roll it up, right? Maybe it's too much. Maybe I put is the whole lavash is good Okay, see dip yeah Wow, this is an Armenian egg sandwich This is something about the lavash. The lavash is so tasty. Love the cheese sour cream. It's different This is not like it's like straight organic sour cream Simple filling and delicious more lavash. Oh, thanks my friend. So you don't eat bread with coffee? No So, how's breakfast breakfast if we prefer to have breakfast it should be eggs like you have you see it now It's like typical Simple Armenian breakfast. So basically this is how it works super strong coffee and nice egg sandwich Armenian style mmm Coffee strong was good. I Should love this type of breakfast very simple, but filling there's some sour cream So the Armenian coffee is very thick right so when you finish it the very bottom There's like mmm, it's like very very thick and you flip it over and she's gonna read my fortune now Thank you so much amazing Thank you. So there's nine rooms here right nine rooms and a cottage. Yeah. Okay, just so you guys know when you come to the John You're staying here All right, let's go cold morning National Park diligent to see some deals Dilijan is a cozy corner in northwest of Armenia and many call it little Switzerland The forested and reclusive town is home to many Armenian famous artists composers filmmakers and it features also Some tradition you can come here to relax to do hiking mountain biking and fresh air Early in the morning you can go for a walk. So you're gonna love village. I'm excited. I'm really excited Look at this. Look at this beautiful scenery. Wow, we literally keep running into cows here We just turned a right and went up the mountain and it's like non-stop cows We actually saw a puppy and we saw like what is this like another 25 cows? Wow, that's some calves Some big cows be really careful going up here because they just like literally just jump like They go Greece and being back No, but there was one guy there. I guess like yeah with the stick with the stick And here are the red deers Wow Pleasure pleasure David pleasure before we see the deer We're gonna stop and have a little bit of coffee. These these gentlemen invited us to some delicious Armenian coffee. Whoo It's not that bad actually this is pretty good like this with the cold weather beautiful scenery Oh If I was a smoker I'd have a big cigarette I'm out there right now Fortune When you come to the red deer breeding center what you could do here is basically feed the deers from outside this massive cage We got exclusive access today to enter the cage We're gonna keep a distance from the deer though. And why why is there a second cage within this? Actually, there's a second cage because this is a breeding period and they separate it The stronger male from the other ones from the younger ones not to let him to be more aggressive right here He's going up and down the cage Basically like intimidating the other three males. So you have small males inside you have this big guy and you can tell his Antlers his antlers are huge and you have a few smaller ones around here So as you see we have this one dominant male. He's the only one outside of that smaller cage So it's him and all these female and then what happens here is that in the breeding center? The goal is to breed them and then re-release them into the wild and you know, we are in the National Park So they literally just release them right here, right? I mean Okay, great. I mean, let's go feed them Look how close they are. They literally just came up to us because we have the food they all came up to us Okay. Oh my god nice, oh My gosh, it's like we're ripping it apart So this is what you have to do when you come here. You have to feed the deer He doesn't want anymore Hey, thank you, thank you so much. Thank you For being awesome, dude So what we're going next? We're going to have our team on the street another hidden treasure in diligent for us Old-school monastery like a thousand years or something. Yeah. Okay. I can't wait This monastery is a little bit from the other monasteries. We've visited this one's actually hidden within the forest So it's a hidden monastery to get here It's only like 15 minutes from Dillijan as you can see beautiful road leading up to the monastery You really feel like this is like, you know in the middle of nowhere super secluded Hours in monastery together with the other monasteries around Dillijan. It was Area Iconic architectural style of medieval period so we made it here to the monastery as you can see It's right over here and we're actually gonna be doing a master class right now a master class in Katia meaning basically master classes here is when they teach us how to make a certain dish. Hello There's a bit These two ladies they're gonna show us how to make the gata gata It's a simple sweet filling this is blueberry and this is apricot and time So the way it's gonna work is they're gonna make one of each of these right so they're gonna make one of each Then I'm gonna make one. I don't know what you're gonna make. Actually, I might make the blueberry one That's the one I like the most. I mean, I just love blueberry. I'm all about it. Okay, my turn to make the gata Okay, so the way it works is I have to get 100 grams so I'm gonna make a ball of 100 grams So, let's see. Hopefully Make like a meatball, right similar. All right a little more Bigger Now put this in the middle and then Let it go like that. And then how do you close it? So you put it in like this, right? Like that Is that good close it this is awesome Perfect and then what happens now? All right, follow me guys Oh This is how you decorate it basically this is how you make some okay I'm drawing a face Okay No, what am I doing? All right guys so after 10 minutes of cooking the gata it is ready and I gotta say the experience here is really amazing Everybody's super friendly the two ladies here. They're like my my Armenian grandmothers for real and and here we go They got that so they cut like a pizza right like triangles and then we have right here like a blueberry jam Whoa, this is looks good. And then we also have two teas and it's called the roast sheep. You said the roast sheep, right? It's the roast sheep. I've never really seen this. It's a it's a fruit from here and they made some tea out of it So I'm gonna try the tea Mmm minty, so they put mint roast sheep. Oh, they're very nice very light and here we go Mmm, it's so good Mmm, nice and sweet I love the blueberries I'm saying the blueberries a little different. It's not blueberries that we know. It's a little different customers area in Armenia Soft dough in the middle. That's a little crunchy inside. You have the blueberry open it up. You can see that blueberry Wow, I love the jam though adding the jam. It's a must. I Want lies a little addictive? because it's so sweet and The biggest difference here is that this is actually very small part of the other ones I've tried They're usually like really really big like that It was like the sweetest bread. I've had in my life Wow, thank you. Thank you Thanks my friend, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Hey, man. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good one All right. Let's go explore the monastery. By the way, this monastery was reconstructed by Dr. Sheikh Sultan from United Arab Emirates He was here he admired the site and decided to support all the reconstruction of this complex Now we go to refectory. This is one of the best survived refactories from 13th century in Armenia This is very old photo Wow, so you saw like like really old run down and he decided to you know, bring his money and fix it up. Wow Wow, what a difference What a difference. Refectory is dining hall for the monks who lived in this monastery and it is built and Includes 12 columns around that symbolize 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ Look at this Original 13th century construction. This is incredible Beautiful spot and I love I love the tables. By the way, this is like traditional Armenian Craftsmanship, right? Wow, and who sits in the in the middle like the head monk. Catholicos can sit in here whenever they have special Celebrations. So this is the seat for the patriarch. We are about to enter the oldest church in this complex This complex consists of four churches, refectory, prayer halls, Hachkars, and now right now we are standing at the oldest church of this complex This is St. Grigori the illuminator Church, 10th century. Nartex This is first hall and then we are entering the church. We separate Nartex from the church Okay, this is the entrance to the church. The church is cross-shaped dome church like typical for Armenian architecture and Actually Hagardin is one of those examples of iconic examples of Armenian Architecture in Middle Ages. Wow, this church is tiny guys tiny church There's two benches here the altar and that's it. Really old 10th century. What else we got here? Wow, look at these walls these stones huge stones The light coming in. I mean, this is like real like medieval. You could really feel it really dark I think I was the candle and the light This is the ruins of a church here the ruins of the entrance of the church huge pillars Secret storage they used to hide the treasures of the monastery Right in there this area we open during the reconstruction and this is the church guys Another beautiful church 10th century. By the way, David, this is even 11th century. We have inscription on the wall So it's the 11th century church. There's four churches here, correct? Yes, and there's also something really special Your time is an ancient walnut tree that they planted here during the same time period so it does yes tradition says that they planted the Walnut tree when they started the construction of the monastery. So it is as old as monastery Many churches in Armenia. They have walnut trees next to them because walnut has ability to take lightening on it as Many churches had wooden roof. So next to the churches they planted walnut trees to protect the Church from the lightning so and imagine several years ago this walnut tree Finally had its mission to take the lightening on it. So it's half of it just burned down. When was that? Yeah Whoa, so I got struck by lightning Thousand years after it was planted. Yeah, that's crazy. And that's it guys. We saw two of the churches here at the monastery There's four they're all a little different, you know, some of them date back to 11th century 12th century 13th century, right? You have to see the walnut tree and now you know why it's so significant over a thousand years old It was planted during the construction of the monastery. Now, let's go to lunch Where are we going? We are going back to Dilijan town and we're going to try some local traditional cuisine You're gonna love it. Yeah. Yes All right guys after like a 10-minute drive we're back in the town and we're gonna eat at a restaurant here I think it's called Tava. We're going to restaurant Tava Wait, they are in the same building. They are all really good ones You will see the first floor, but I guess it's better when we go upstairs So you will love the atmosphere here You will love people in here And you're gonna love the food Wow, this is nice It's different. I like this place. Very funky. Love the colors Beautiful. This is so cool. It's more like a Feels like more like vintage modern. Oh guys Wow beautiful spot Really nice. Oh, man, and they got a lot of wine. I see a lot of wine. Oh, yeah. Oh my god What is this like cheese boards cook? Cheese got me. It's got bread. This is appetizers set Some local cheeses they did with their own spices. You see Bostroma right in there See different kind of meat snacks Yeah, this is this is lush Wow Bread everything is coming right here. That's a really really big brick oven. Yes, that's huge Yes, wow, the aroma here the smell just like hits you how delicious everything is. Oh my god. I can't wait So it's two restaurants downstairs got lush upstairs. You have Tava. Tava is more like a vintage restaurant downstairs So lush and Tava have different menus different vibes and the food is awesome like the food looks incredible Well, I can't wait to eat all this food Let's go let's go. This is no joke guys. This is no joke. Look at this feast We have so many different things we have right here the bruschetta We have the cheese bread board in the middle then we have I think this is couscous with mushrooms over here We have chicken with what is that? So tomatoes onions peppers. You have some two different sauces one of them spicy Yes, over here. We have Armenian noodles. Yeah, told me Armenian or and pork belly What so guys I'm gonna start off with the bruschetta. Let's just try one of these. I don't they all look so beautiful It's like a delicate delicate little plate here This one has some meat on top this this piece Mmm, it's like a fruity jam The saltiness with the sweet and bread Phenomenal, right? We got some cheese So this is cheese. Wow, this cheese looks good. I think there's peppers in it, right? Red pepper always the bread here in Armenia is king It's almost like a manchego I'm gonna get some of this couscous Right there couscous, it's a mushrooms This is tree mushrooms It's very local Couscous Hmm. Oh It's a smaller grains Whoa a little fruity, you know, that's some fruit another one sweet right here We're trying the mushrooms It's actually a tree mushroom rose on trees So now we're gonna get some of the pork I'm also gonna get some of the noodles, you know This is so different, you know, it's Armenian noodles a little bit of a twist on it, right? Then we're also get some chicken. I think under the chicken. There's some beans We're gonna get tomato and this sauce the sauce like a spicy sauce It said it's a little it's a little hot. Be careful, and they always give us You know some lettuce and this is like to make yourself a sandwich If you want to make yourself a little pork belly almost like Korea, you know get some of the sauce put it inside Hmm I've heard it's so good. That's not as spicy. Love the crunch begin the lettuce wrap all delicious Wow, that's an amazing pork right here. We have chicken Try chicken with some of that sauce to Give me spicy all day Hmm and then here we have Armenian noodles Whoa, hey, that's so different that's like It almost feels like noodles in China, but these are a little I think it's like a little more oily, you know No sauce just good oil delicious Wow, that's so good The food is like comfort food Really make you feel at home all the best ingredients super fresh all organic and basically my favorite I don't know the noodles But you know, I haven't even tried the beans. Yes. Let me see that. I love beans Nice and mushy big That's good, this is like real good food Wow So right here. They have like four different cheeses the string cheese. This is like the typical one it's very salty and this one is almost like a Almost like a parmesan but a little creamier softer and so good This meal has been epic so good so organic everything is so delicious my favorite two things though I have to say is the mushrooms. You're so good and earthy and delicious. Also the the beans really good as well I mean everything is amazing. But I think those two of my favorite things. I'm just gonna keep going and keep eating them Yeah, so it's not just what we did today, which was epic I mean we started off with breakfast at the bed and breakfast right then we went to see the deers. So the red deer Amazing beautiful animal we fed them after that went to the monastery store the monastery another really historical monastery You have to visit. I mean, this is what Armenia is about, you know, lots of history here over 2,000 years of you know Almost Christianity here. And yeah, I mean it sounds amazing. It's a it's a definitely a gem Most people don't know about it So I recommend you come here when you go to Armenia If you love this video thumbs up comment below subscribe to my channel and we'll see you in the next round food adventure in Armenia You