Eating in Azerbaijan: A Practical Guide

Food is the part of a trip to Azerbaijan that visitors consistently underrate before arriving and talk about afterwards. It sits between Turkish, Persian and Caucasian cooking without being any of them.

Here is what to order, how a meal works, and how to find the kitchens worth eating in.

The shape of a meal

A meal here starts wide. Bread, herbs, cheese, pickles and salads arrive first and stay on the table.

The herb plate is not a garnish. It is a course, eaten by hand alongside everything else, and it changes the taste of the meat it accompanies.

Then the main dish, then tea. Tea is not optional and it is not rushed.

Plov

The national dish, and there are many versions of it. What distinguishes the local style is that the rice and what goes with it are cooked separately and brought together at the end.

That produces separate grains rather than a single pot of everything, and a crust at the bottom of the pan that people compete for.

Order it once in a serious restaurant rather than in a fast lunch place. It is a dish that shows what a kitchen can do.

Grills

Kebab here covers lamb, chicken, and vegetables cooked on the same fire. Ask for a mixed plate the first time and work out what you liked afterwards.

The vegetables are not an afterthought. Aubergine, tomato and pepper cooked over coals, then peeled and dressed, is one of the best things on any table in this country.

Dolma and its relatives

Stuffed vine leaves, stuffed peppers, stuffed aubergines. Meat versions and vegetable versions both exist and both are standard.

This is where a good kitchen shows its hand, because the filling is where the seasoning lives.

Soups and sour things

Sourness runs through the cooking here, from plum sauces to yoghurt-based soups. If you are used to sweet or hot as the dominant note, this will read as unfamiliar and then as addictive.

Dovga, the yoghurt and herb soup, is the one to try if you want to understand the direction of the local palate.

For vegetarians

Better than the grill-heavy reputation suggests. Vegetable dolma, bean and lentil dishes, aubergine in several forms, fresh cheeses, herbs and bread will build a full meal without effort.

Say what you do not eat clearly at the start. Kitchens here are used to accommodating and are not offended by being asked.

Finding the right place

Short menu, full room, local voices. That is the whole method.

Be sceptical of long laminated menus in four languages in tourist areas. A kitchen doing forty dishes is doing none of them well, and the price reflects the location rather than the food.

Ask your driver or your hotel where they eat. Not where they recommend, where they eat.

Timing

Lunch is unhurried and often the better meal. Dinner is late, and a restaurant that looks quiet at seven can be full at nine.

Book at weekends. Popular places in the centre fill quickly, and an hour spent looking for a table is an hour of the evening gone.

Tea, briefly

Tea closes every meal and fills every gap between them. It is served in a small pear-shaped glass, often with jam or sweets alongside.

It is also the social structure of the country, which is why it has its own page here.

Arranging it

If you want a food-focused day, tell us. It changes which neighbourhoods a walk covers and which market is worth the detour.