Dinner at Omar Khayyam's (1944)

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DINNER AT OMAR KHAYYAM'S
by George Mardikian
The Viking Press, NY
1944

   Omar Khayyam (my recent Central Asia tour had many references to him) was a very popular San Francisco restaurant.  This book has a large number of Turkish/Armenian/Central Asian dishes.
   "_Doner_ kebab" is not here, but almost everything else is.

Pg. 27 (MADZOON):
   I CONSIDER that an outstanding contribution to my adopted land is my effort to encourage Americans to eat madzoon.

Pg. 76:
   The Countess Barbara Hutton Haugwitz-Reventlow, now Mrs. Cary Grant, brought her housekeeper and cook all the way up from Santa Monica to San Francisco in order that I might show her how to make Lah majoun, since this is one of her favorite dishes.
   _LAH MAJOUN_
6 cupfuls flour
1 1/2 cupfuls water
1 teaspoonful salt
1 tablespoonful peanut oil
1 yeast cake (...)
(This is "lahmacun," or the now-popular "Turkish pizza" that I recently posted--ed.)

Pg. 78:
   _BANIROV BEUREK_
   This pastry is the most common in the homes of all Armenians.

Pg. 81:
   _MANTI_
   Manti is an Armenian version of an original paste.  Since Armenians love to be first, I suspect they were annoyed to find that the Chinese were the discoverers of macaroni, and through Marco Polo paste was first introduced to the Near East.  Armenians tried to make something new of it after it was introduced to them, and manti is the result.  It must be served with madzoon.
(Recipe follows--ed.)