Buku, the Windy City; Azeri Food

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   Greetings from Baku, Azerbaijan.  Baku means "windy city," and it supposedly gets 270 windy days each year.  "Baku" was coined by New York Sun editor Charles A. Dana in 1893 when New York was competing with Azerbaijan for the 1892 World's Fair.
   We saw some amazing petroglyphs today...Why does everyone always wear black suits?...Garry Kasparov is ducking me.

NODDING DONKEY--Another tourist thought he heard the guide say "drinking donkey."  A nickname for the oil derricks that bob up and down.

AZERBAYCAN KULINARIYASI
(AZERBAIJAN COOKERY)
by Huseyn Huseynzade
Baku
224 pages, hardcover, in three languages (also Russian)
1996

(THese are the English!?--ed.)
Pg. 15:  FISINDJAN SPINACH
Pg. 19:  PARCHA BOZBACH
Pg. 22:  KYALLA-PACHA
Pg. 23:  PYTY A LA SHEKY
Pg. 25:  SHORBA WITH CHICKEN
Pg. 26:  DUSHBARA
Pg. 27:  DOVGA WITH BEANS
Pg. 28:  SULU KHINGAL WITH CHICKEN
Pg. 30:  KHYADIK
Pg. 33:  OVRISHTA
Pg. 34:  TURSHU GOURMA
Pg. 40:  CHYKHYRTMA OF CHICKEN
Pg. 41:  LAVANGY
Pg. 77:  KUKU PILAFF
Pg. 151:  SHAKER BURA
Pg. 153:  MUTAKY SHEMAKY STYLE
Pg. 155:  PESHVENK
Pg. 163:  NOGUL
Pg. 165:  BAMYA
Pg. 167:  CURABEAUX IN BAKU STYLE
Pg. 168:  GOVUD
Pg. 182:  GYRMABADAM


AZERBAIJAN
WITH EXCURSIONS TO GEORGIA
by Mark Elliott
Trailblazer Publications,Hindhead, Surrey
350 pages, paperback
2001

   "Appendix C: Glossary" runs from pages 325-330.
   "Appendix B: Menu Decoder" runs from pages 320-325.  Symbols indicate if the food term is Azeri, Georgian, Russian, Turkish, Persian, or of other origin.
   "Jiz-Biz," which I'd seen in the FIve Stans, is listed here as Azeri.  "Shashlik" is listed as "widespread throught the Caucasus and beyond."

Pg. 325:
_Xot Dog_ (Widespread, Russian--ed.) Hot dog.  The "hot dogs" you get from Baku street stalls for 1000M are frankfurters baked into a bread roll and are not necessarily hot.

   Dishes with the Azeri symbol (others as indicated):
Akhta
Albukhara
Alcha Turchusu
Arak
Ash
Asterina
Atkyartof
Aryan (Turkish)
Azma
Badamli Borucuq
Baklava (Turkish)
Balik (Turkish)
Balva
Bamiya
Bekmes
Borshch (Russian)
Bozartma
Bozbash
Chigirtma
Chorek
Doga
Dograma (Russian)
Dondurma (Turkish)
Dovga
Dushbara
Etli (Turkish)
Gaiganag
Gogal
Goy
Gubdari
Gurza
Hafta-Bedjar
Halva  (WHAT?  No other symbol for this?  This is exclusively an Azeri dish?  Well, you can check the rest yourself against the OED.  It's a worthwhile list for the Caucasus--ed.)