Georgian food is very similar to Armenian (and Lebanese and Turkish) – grilled meat/ salad/ always with fucking cucumbers. The only differences are slight. Georgia and Armenia are much less sophisticated. Lebanese and Turkish food is way more sophisticated and complex and diverse.

The Georgians love ‘feasts’. Meals should be served at long tables and toasts are very important. Its a fine line between whether drinking is more important than eating.

The whole history and culture of Georgia is about wine and grapes. The culture was at its peak in the 11^th c and all the churches and building left from then (LOTS!) have carvings of grapes.

Some wine was great. A lot of very sweet reds. And enough orange wine to last me forever, thanks.

Kachapuri – the signature dish of Georgia and one of very many cheese based dishes they have. (You can understand why they need so much dried fruit now). Kachapuri is quite delicious – crispy bread outside, ricotta-ish cheese, melted butter and a raw egg inside. You mix it all together and the egg cooks a little because its very hot.

I swear I have eaten at least one cucumber salad, sometime 3, every day for the last month. In Beirut they had mint. In Georgia they have ground walnuts. I don’t need to eat cucumber ever again. These giant fist sized dumplings were delicious. Meat and broth inside. You use the top/handle part to pick them up, but you don’t eat that bit.

One of these meals was the one that tried to kill me … I don’t want to talk about either.

Feasts!

Caviar and rye 🙂