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Best Ghapama in New York

“A hollowed pumpkin stuffed with honeyed rice, nuts, dried fruits, and meat—a New World vegetable that became unmistakably Armenian.”

What the real thing tastes like

Ghapama (Armenian: ղափամա) is an Armenian stuffed pumpkin dish, usually served as a dessert. It is prepared by removing the inside of the pumpkin (known as դդում in Armenian, pronounced dt'um in Eastern Armenian and t't'um in Western Armenian) and stuffing it with cooked rice, butter, honey, dried fruits, nuts, and meat, to be baked. Dried fruits used in the dish include figs, apricots, prunes, and raisins, while the nuts include walnuts and almonds. Historically, crops such as pumpkins, potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes, were brought to Armenia in the 19th century from the "New World". The crops were mixed with traditional Armenian dishes and were then "naturalized" to Armenian cuisine according to writers Irina Petrosian and David Underwood. Other than ghapama, other Armenian dishes that used the crops in include ajapsandali and tomato lavash.

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Ghapama is an Armenian stuffed pumpkin that arrives at the table as both savory and sweet—a hollowed shell packed with buttery rice, honeyed dried fruits, nuts, and meat, then baked until the pumpkin itself becomes tender enough to eat. What feels ancient is actually relatively young: pumpkins only arrived in Armenia in the 19th century from the Americas, yet they were adopted so completely that ghapama now reads as utterly traditional, a dish that naturalized itself into Armenian identity.

Order it here when it has

combines sweet and savory
uses multiple nuts and dried fruits
complete one-vessel dish

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