Armenian culture has lots of great food that I love to eat and enjoy at restaurants. Dolma, lahmajun, and borek are a just a few of my favorite dishes. However, there is a dish which I dislike from my cultural kitchen, and this is an opinion that others might deem controversial. That dish is called khash, and it goes back thousands of years.
Khash is a sort of soup that is made of cows’ feet. First they clean the feet and bowl them in water, and then when it’s ready, you eat it. The dish is said to be a “poor man’s food” because in the old days the rich people threw away the feet of the cow. The less wealthy people then caught these items and made them into soup.
In my opinion, khash is a very disgusting dish. It feels very gross on your palate, because you’re eating cows’ feet. It is served with garlic and cut up lavash. This dish is full of oil as well, which makes it really unhealthy. The oils in the dish will definitely make your cholesterol level go up.
When I first tried khash, I felt sick to my stomach for the rest of the day. However, people in my culture claim that khash is famous for its powerful healing capacity. Obviously, this is not true for me.
Despite this fact, the main reason that I don’t like khash is because it is not good for your health. Not only is it made of unhealthy oils, but there’s nothing nutritional in its contents. The soup is also very hard to digest, which leads me to drink carbonated drinks to make me feel better after eating it. Its contents also make my mouth and hands get sticky afterwards.
One of the myths surrounding khash is that it helps people get stronger and have a more muscular body. This is totally false.
The dish is mostly eaten during the winter, because it’s so warm. When you cook this dish, it takes hours and makes your whole home smell like cows’ feet, which isn’t very pleasing either and makes my head hurt. Khash is typically eaten in the morning, which of course is another reason for people being able to digest it by the end of the day. I would love for this dish to disappear from my family’s table.
People claim that khash can’t be enjoyed without a beverage, which in my opinion is total nonsense. I really dislike the taste, the ingredients, and the whole effect that it has on my body for the rest of the day. Khash makes you drowsy, and you can’t eat anything afterwards. It also contains thousands of calories with no health benefits.
For years, when I was a child, I would see my family eat this Armenian traditional food. I did try khash once and decided never to eat it again. I remember my grandmother praising the dish, claiming that it would be good for me. Unfortunately she was only going along with the myth that had probably been passed down to her by her own grandmother.
Overall, khash is actually terrible for your body, because of its lack of nutrients. If you are ever curious to try it, do so with caution. Eating khash will most likely just make you feel sick, so maybe try one of the dozens of other Armenian delicacies instead.