Filed under: Europe, Georgia
Georgian cuisine has not really received its international due, and this is a shame. It is an exciting cuisine that takes its cues from points east and west, relying on an extraordinarily fresh local bounty.
Part of what renders Georgian food so insanely good is this very freshness. Shops and stalls in Tbilisi groan with local fruit and vegetables in mesmerizing variety. One example was the finger grape, a variety more elongated than any grape I'd ever seen before. While the meats are seasoned wonderfully in Georgian cuisine, it is the local vegetables, fruit, and cheese that really stand out. A happy byproduct of this focus on vegetables and fruit: Georgian cuisine is strikingly vegetarian-friendly.
One of my Tbilisi restaurant discoveries was Shavi Lomi, at Amalglebis 23 in Sololaki. Everything I samples at Shavi Lomi was delicious, but what brought me back three times, frankly, was the sunflower oil on their tomato and cucumber salads, which were tossed with herbs and tiny rings of very hot pepper. Never had I tasted such fresh and delicate sunflower oil; for that matter, every last thing in the salad tasted as if it had just been picked or rescued from the soil.
But for all of its healthy hallmarks, some of the most exciting culinary things on offer in Georgia aren't exactly heart-smart. One of the star local dishes, a juicy dumpling called khinkali that requires a quick tutorial before being devoured, is typically stuffed with meat. Cheese- and mushroom-filled khinkali are also available, but the meat-stuffed variety predominates.
And then there's khachapuri, specifically the Adjarian khachapuri, pictured above.Continue reading Georgian cuisine: Adjarian khachapuri and other delicious thingsGeorgian cuisine: Adjarian khachapuri and other delicious things originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
No comments:
Post a Comment