The plates keep coming, crowding the large wooden table until almost no space is left. A basket filled with hot flatbreads, freshly scraped from the clay wall of a tandoor oven. Platters of sweet tomato wedges and crisp cucumber slices. A sizzling cast-iron pan containing kuku, a flavorsome frittata with milled walnuts and browned onions, cut into triangles and drizzled with lemon juice. Ornate trays of pickled fruit: kiwis, blackthorns, feijoas. A porcelain bowl of turşkabab — chunks of beef and whole baby eggplants slowly stewed with chopped dill and parsley. Our host, Raftara Shukurova, brings out the main dish herself, crossing a gravel path flanked by lemon and fig trees with a plate of spit-roasted chicken. Stuffed with a delectable paste of walnuts, sumac, sour cherries, and pomegranate syrup,…
