Azerbaijan - Day 2

 Day-2 28/10/24

Left for Gobustan at 10:30 am. Azerbaijan has more mud volcanoes than the total number of mud volcanoes of all other countries put together. The tourist vehicle took us to a point from where dirt road starts. We are required to change vehicle at this spot. The alternate vehicles were small cars with manual controls and most of them are of Russian make. Drivers were friendly. The charges were 40 ₼ (AZN: manat) for a car with three passengers. We had two cars for six of us. It takes around half an hour to reach mud volcanoes. The dirt track is very challenging and to negotiate ups & downs, twist & turns all the skill and expertise of seasoned driver is required.

It is an unusual site with dark grey mud, which appears to be boiling (bubbling) in small to large mounds formed by the overflowing mud. The cause of bubbling can be Sulphur dioxide or methane gas, but you cannot smell it anywhere. One of the drivers used lighter to burn the oozing gas from one of the volcanoes.  To our surprise mud was absolutely cold to touch and had soft, silky feel and became hard as it dried up. It was difficult to wash the mud from our fingers. One may see videos on social media of tourists taking mud bath in mud pools, we did not come across any such large mud pools. We saw small to big mud mounds spread across a very vast span of arid land but even the big one had comparatively small aperture. Visitors were carrying the mud in bottles to possibly try mud pack after reaching their hotels/ place of stay. We did not carry any mud bottles with us.

On our way back we visited Gobustan Rock art museum. (Petroglyph Museum Gobustan - State Historical and Cultural Reserve) is located west of the settlement of Gobustan, about 40 miles (64 km) southwest of the centre of Baku. It was established in 1966  to preserve the rock carvings, and musical stones, when the area was declared a national historical landmark of Azerbaijan. 

Most likely, ancient inhabitants of Gobustan used Gavaldash stones as a musical instrument. (The "Mystery of Gavaldash" is quite simple: the marks on the stones show that they were struck in places that protruded in some way into the air, and could thus reverberate in such a way, that when this porous limestone was hit, one could hear various sounds). The musical stone is right at the entrance of the museum.

Gobustan Rock Art museum has more than 6,000 rock carvings, (some 100+ are opened for visitors), which depict people, animals (cattle, goats, horses), battle-pieces, ritual dances, bullfights, boats with armed oarsmen, warriors with lances, camel caravans, Sun, and stars, on an average dating back to 5,000-20,000 years. Gobustan State Historical and Cultural Reserve acquired national status in 2006, and Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape was inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list in 2007. 

On the way out from Gobustan Rock Art museum one woman was selling Qutab (Kutab). Qutab is an Azerbaijani dish made from thinly rolled dough that is cooked briefly on a convex griddle known as Saj. It is stuffed flatbread with filling, like stuffed paratha we make. The choice for filling can be unlimited. We had Cheese filling with some fresh herbs served hot. It is a delicacy and a must taste.

We returned to Baku at around 3 pm. We had our late lunch at Dolma restaurant (Dolma is also a name of traditional Azerbaijani dish, a dish of stuffed vegetables or leaves that originated in Turkey, Iran, and other regions. Dolma is typically made with a filling of rice, minced meat, offal- (the heart and other organs of an animal, used as food), seafood, or fruit, wrapped in a vegetable or leaf). All of us were keen on having local Azerbaijani cuisine. Dolma, the place is quite inconspicuous from the road and identified by a small board. We had to walk down few steps to come across long stone corridor with small dining halls accommodating four to six tables with 6-8 chairs each. Ambience was impressive with round colourful glass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, which was low. The whole appearance is that of well lit, decorated barracks or stone cellars. We were led to our table by waiter traditionally dressed with warm welcoming smile.

We had Tomato soup, Dolma (usually consumed with bread), Lamb pilaff with chestnut, apricots, vegetables and rice, local draft beer, Piti-served in conical earthenware Dobu (pot)  and Kunafa for dessert. Dolma, we had, were like round dumplings with minced lamb meat wrapped in mushroom and grape leaves and steamed.   

EATING PITI
All you can see in the conical earthenware Dobu (pot) is a lump of lamb fat floating lugubriously in broth. Don't panic! Before eating anything, start by tearing up pieces of bread into a separate bowl. Sprinkle with sumac (the purple condiment you'll see on the table) and then pour the Piti broth over the top. Eat the resultant soup as a first course. Then transfer the remaining Piti solids to the dish and mush together using spoon and fork. Yes. Including that lump of fat. Without it, the dish just will not taste right. Another sprinkling of sumac and your 'second course' is ready to eat.

                                                                                            

SERVING KUNAFA & PITI

Kunafa is made from Kataifi, which is shredded phyllo (flour) dough. This shredded dough is spread onto a pan and stuffed with either cheese or ashta (thickened cream), baked, then drizzled with simple sugar syrup and garnished with pistachios or ice cream.

Piti, served in conical earthenware Dobu (pot).

The total bill was 150 ₼ for 6 of us. Cheaper than the earlier day and with more variety.

The waiter’s name was Nomic. When asked what he was doing he said "it's surprise (pronounced as "suprais"). He had spirit (pronounced as "sprit") lamp to bake the dough. He poured sugar syrup and allowed it to cook and then spread vanilla ice cream on top and served hot.

It was Delicious!!

The restaurant was close to the apartment and post lunch we chose to walk back. We walked down the Nizami street. Nice walk, street is like a shopping plaza having outlets of international brands and with quite a few restaurants, many of them served Indian & Pakistani cuisine and staff from those restaurants mostly Pakistani were approaching passing tourists, requesting in Hindi or English to try cuisine from their restaurants. Happy crowd was mingling leisurely around in vacation mood.

It was a beautiful evening. The day was long and filled with lot of excitement including the food and beer. We came back to the apartment. After late and heavy lunch none of us had any appetite for the dinner and preferred to rest.