three big changes and one big discovery

about a year ago my life changed in three big ways...

I was living in New York, buried in my studies and work. Next thing I know I am in Paris and married with my first real job after what seems like a lifetime as a student. Life is full of good surprises sometimes.

French took on slowly. Dinners with friends turned into once relaxing and enjoyable evenings to exhausting, headache- inducing struggles. Listening, watching and learning became my way of life. Every task, every activity required effort. Even watching TV was tiring.

Soon I realized that I was spending a lot of time thinking about food - not because I was hungry, but because it brought me a sense of peace and calm. In this new strange world, where it was a real effort to have an adult conversation, food was the one thing that didn’t need to be translated. It was the one thing that I could do to clear my mind and do well and finish with something that brought a smile to my new family’s and friends’ faces and a look of understanding in their eyes. It became a way for me to see an immediate product, an immediate achievement.


But it wasn’t just French food I was discovering. I was rediscovering my roots, what I grew up with, the foods that brought with them memories and the feeling of back home. The foods of my Armenian-Lebanese-American home. I wanted to bring those flavors, aromas and memories to my new home, my new life.

Apricots & Thyme - a symbol the two cultures that met in my present life. Apricots - of Armenian food and culture. Thyme - a staple of French home cooking. A blog about re-exploration, rediscovery. A search for home in my kitchen in this new land. It is about food but the food is about home. It's about dolma, jarret d'agneau, hommus, yogurt soup (kebbe labnieh), petit salee aux lentilles, tabouleh, menaeesh, bouregs, gratins, crepes and galettes, and of course - plenty of desserts from nammoura to fondant au chocolat.

Anoush ellah and Bon appetit!