AUTUMN ARMENIAN FOOD BAZAAR MARKS 120TH ANNIVERSARY

California’s oldest Armenian Congregation will mark 120 years of ministry at its annual harvest season community luncheon. The First Armenian Presbyterian Church of Fresno will hold its 2017 Merchants’ Lunch and Country Store. The event will feature lunch with seasoned beef filet kebab or garlic chicken kebab, rice pilaf, cheese boureg, garden salad, pickled tourshee, fresh peda bread, paklava, among the offerings. Photographs, paintings, and artifacts depicting a century and 20 years of Central California ministry will be on display during the culinary gathering.
Meals will be available to guests for dine-in, take-out, or drive through. An all-new offering of family-style takeout portions will be available for larger group gatherings by calling (559) 237-6638 a day in advance of the event. The drive-through lane will be located on the Raisina Street side of the Church Campus, one block west of First Street between Huntington Boulevard and Balch Avenue.
The Merchants’ Lunch Country Store will be open throughout the luncheon hours for holiday shopping. The Store will offer such ethnic delicacies as choreg, souberag,
paklava, yalanchi, bottled grape leaves, gutah, tourshee, rojik, and basdegh. The abundant produce of the San Joaquin Valley and a host of homemade breads, jellies, and pastries will round out the comestibles in the Store pantry.
“A Hundred Years and Still Cooking,” the FAPC Fidelis Women’s Society Centennial recipe collection, will also be available for purchase. The 496-page volume includes instructions for preparing 636 different ethnic recipes and sells for $35. First reviewed in the January 14, 1998 edition of The Los Angeles Times, the cookbook is a unique compendium of heritage recipes, Scriptural truths, Old World culinary precepts, and Central California ethnic history.
Reverend Gregory Vahack Haroutunian, Reverend Mgo Mekredijian, and Reverend Philip C. Garo, Jr. comprise the FAPC Leadership Team. Maryvonne Gagliardi and Jonelle S.G. Kazarian are Co-Chairs of the 2017 Merchants’ Lunch and Country Store.
Chartered by 40 immigrants in a rented hall on July 25, 1897, FAPC was the boyhood church of authors William Saroyan and A.I. Bezzerides. Six generations and 12 decades later, FAPC is a multigenerational congregation drawn from the Old and New Worlds. FAPC is a member congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America. The 120th Anniversary theme of the congregation is “Love Christ. Love Others. Make Disciples.”