An Armenian in the Andes Mountains

As I travel through Patagonia, I encountered a food truck on the side of the road. I did not expect it, but I found an Armenian woman selling authentic Armenian Shawarma...

As people that personally know me, I have been doing a lot of traveling.  Currently traveling around South America and I found myself in Patagonia.

Over here there doesn’t seem to be much food outside of the usual Argentinian/Western European food (more postings coming up later).  Which is NOT a big deal of itself, since all of this is delicious to begin with. 

However today I encountered the biggest surprise I have seen so far.

I found a food truck (trailer really) that sold Shawarma.  I spoke to the lady, and she quickly figured out that I was not a local.

We switched to English, and she told me that the bread she was making the Shawarma called Lavash.

I asked if she was Armenian, and she told me that she was Armenia but originally from Lebanon.  Her family went to Lebanon to escape the Armenian Genocide back during the First World War, and moved to Argentina when there was a war in Lebanon decades ago. 

She mentioned that she not only spoke English, but Arabic, Armenian, French, Turkish and a few other languages and of course Spanish.  I had no idea she was Armenian since she spoke Spanish in the distinct Argentinian accent (she called out “caballero” to someone and said it in the distinct Argentinian pronunciation that sounded more like “caba-sheh-ro”).

Anyway, we spoke for a bit, and I mentioned that I was in the process of trying to help out some Syrian Christians who are stranded in Indonesia (More on that later) and some of them were Armenian families. 

We connected for a bit.  I plan on coming back to not only support her, but also because the Shawarma was really good.  Here are some pictures of said food.

Will take better pictures next time!