2011 Merchants' Lunch and Country Store November 17, 2011

The autumn food bazaar at California’s oldest Armenian Church will salute the 390th anniversary of the Thanksgiving tradition in North America.
The First Armenian Presbyterian Church will mark the milestone at its Merchants’ Lunch and Country Store on Thursday, November 17, 2011. The gathering will recall the autumn feast of the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Native Americans in 1621.
The annual harvest season celebration is open to the public and will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Church Campus, 430 South First Street, midway between historic Huntington Boulevard and the Kings Canyon/Ventura Avenue Promenade.
Lunch is $12 per person and will include seasoned lulu kebab, rice pilaf, cheese boureg, garden salad, pickled tourshee, fresh peda bread, paklava de’Anatolia, and beverage. Meals will be available on a dine-in, take out, and drive-through basis.
The Country Store will be open throughout the luncheon hours for holiday shopping. The Store will offer such ethnic delicacies as choreg, souboureg, paklava, yalanchi, bottled grape leaves, gutah, tourshee, rojik, and basdegh. The abundant produce of the San Joaquin Valley and an array of homemade breads and pastries will round out the comestibles in the Store pantry.
The Store will also sell copies of “A Hundred Years and Still Cooking,” the new and revised printing of the Fidelis Women’s Society Centennial recipe collection. The 500+ page cookbook includes instructions for preparing 636 different ethnic dishes and sells for $35. First reviewed in the January 14, 1998 edition of The Los Angeles Times, the volume is a unique compendium of heritage recipes, Scriptural wisdom, Old World culinary precepts, and Central California ethnic history. The collection includes recipes by the pioneering Armenian women who first settled in the heartland of the Golden State more than 120 years ago.
Merchants’ Lunch meals and Country Store items may be reserved in advance for drive-through pickup by calling (559) 351-3651 or (559) 237-6638 or faxing (559) 834-1147 or (559) 237-9526. Advance orders should be placed on or before November 16. 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.
Reverend Mgrdich Melkonian is Senior Pastor of the Church, Reverend Mike Mekredijian is Associate Pastor, Philip Garo, Jr., M.Div., is the Director of Youth and Children’s Ministries, and Maria Kalayjian and Houri Melkonian are Co-Chairs of the 2011 Merchants’ Lunch.
FAPC is a member congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America. The 2011 theme of the congregation is “A New Community.”
More information about the Merchants' Lunch is available by calling (559) 237-6638 or e-mailing fapc@fapc.net.

Official Website: http://www.fapc.net