Azeri cuisine has over 30 kinds of soups, including those prepared from sour milk. Another distinction of some soups is the application of sheepfat. Sturgeon, a common fish, is normally skewered and grilled as a kebab, being served with a tart sour-plum sauce. The traditional condiments are salt, pepper and sumac. Typical Azeri desserts are sticky, syrup-saturated pastries such as pakhlava or halva. The latter, a layer of chopped nuts sandwiched between mats of thread-like fried dough, is unique to Sheki. A tea is traditionally drunk with a sugar lump. Special tea is also made of cinnamon and ginger. A practice, more common among the Lezgins in the north, is adding a spoonful of rose water to the tea.
