Azerbaijan & the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race
The Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland at the Kinetic Sculpture Race
We trekked up to Baltimore for this week’s cuisine in order to go to a uniquely Azerbaijani restaurant AND to catch the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race. The Kinetic Sculpture Race is a land and water course where human-powered sculptures (like the caterpillar above) race. This event is pretty much a conglomeration of everything we love:
1. Crazy costumes
Average onlooker
Race volunteers hard at work
2. Dedication to art/hilarious ideas
This pink poodle can be found off-season at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, the sponsor of the race.
Even more impressive when you remember– it has to float!
3. Large/insane projects that take an absurd amount of planning
Loose Cannon… sporting a hat Patty Ransom gifted me
This platy-pus had amazing speed coming out of the water… lots o’ people power!
Whoever came up with the idea for the first kinetic sculpture race was a genius. Pure genius.
Speaking of large/insane projects that take a lot of planning… after watching the sculptures launch into the harbor, we headed up to Owings Mills, MD for this week’s PIG Project destination: Azerbaijan.
We found an authentic Azeri restaurant called Kavkaz Kebab.
Neil & his lamb kebab
As you might expect, Azeri food tastes like a mix between Russian and Turkish food.
Azerbaijan
The food was delicious, and they had three Azeri sodas: non-alcoholic beer flavor (which was more like a soy sauce & molasses mix), pear & tarragon. Mmm.
Neil had his lamb kebab & a tasty spinach Kutabi with yogurt that was quite succulent.
Kutabi
I started off with a extra poofy phyllo dough pastry filled with cheese called a Khachapuri (Azerbaijan’s neighbor Georgia’s national dish).
Khachapuri
I also had a “grilled eggplant salad” with tandori bread & stole some surprisingly delightful “Lobio Salad” from Kevin. It had kidney beans, walnuts, cilantro, garlic, olive oil & “spices.” Oh, man it was so tasty!
Eggplant dish & Lobio salad
We topped it off with a delicious cookie with a surprising sugar-coated inside & baklava. The baklava was very different than those I’ve tried before it was very moist and the layers were not at all pastry like. It was quite delicious.
Azeri cookie
Baklava
We had an amazing day. Way to be hardcore Carrie, Adam & Kevin. Studying for finals is for the faint of heart!
Azerbaijan crew
I have been seeing these posters in the metro this Spring, so I have been wanting to find out more about Azerbaijan.
Poster in DC Metro
It turns out, just like Armenia wants the world to remember the crimes perpetrated against them by Turkey, Azerbaijan wants the world to remember a massacre of Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian forces in 1992. Here is the website they advertise. There continues to be intense territorial disputes with Armenia about an Azerbaijani region that is primarily populated by Armenians, Nagorno Karabakh. The region is still occupied by Armenian forces to this day, although there has been a cease-fire since 1994.
Azerbaijan was the first democratic parliamentary republic in the Muslim world, founded in 1918. Azerbaijan encompasses approximately 33,436 sq mi – roughly the size of Maine. The official language is Azerbaijani – a derivative of Turkish – though much of the nation also speaks Russian. Our waitress was actually from Russia, so we were not able to grill her on Azerbaijan. I asked if we could talk to the Azerbaijani cook, but she said he didn’t speak any English. Language barriers aside, it was a delightful meal. One of the best so far!
We’re at the end of the As….except, before we can celebrate conquering all of the As, we must finish Australia… it is, after all, not only a country but also a continent, which makes it too important to skip!
Themocracy
[...] Azerbaijan [...]
I live in Baltimore, but grew up and lived in Azerbaijan for 24 years. Next time you guysin town treats and stories are on me!
Sam, thanks so much for the kind offer!!!
Let’s start this parade tradition in Utah!
Everything floats in the Great Salt Lake, afterall!
Thanks a lot for your good writing.I was pleased to this script when I read.I am Azerbaijani and now I live in Baku.Thank a lot about good information about Azerbaijan and azerbaijanis.