{"id":14932,"date":"2013-05-06T16:38:55","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T14:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tasteaway.pl\/en\/?p=14932"},"modified":"2018-06-06T10:21:20","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T08:21:20","slug":"khinkali-khachapuri-churchele-discovering-georgian-cuisine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tasteaway.pl\/en\/2013\/05\/06\/khinkali-khachapuri-churchele-discovering-georgian-cuisine\/","title":{"rendered":"Khinkali, khachapuri and churchele \u2014 discovering the Georgian cuisine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuisine in Georgia? Delicious, served in abundance, quite simple and rather cheap. The portions are enormous, although not expensive, therefore after almost each lunch or dinner you’re left with a few pieces of khachapuri<\/em> bread to take home with you. What is an absolute culinary must in\u00a0Tbilisi, Batumi and the Caucasus Mountains? Well, there is no visit to Georgia without two dishes: the already mentioned khachapuri<\/em>\u00a0bread in different versions (but almost always with salty cheese) and originally-shaped khinkali<\/em> dumplings. These two accompanied us throughput our whole journey in Georgia \u2014 we ate them for lunch, dinner and khachapuri<\/em> sometimes even for breakfast (when we managed to find them in a bakery near the road, on our way…). That’s why I’ll start with this specialty!<\/p>\n

KHACHAPURI<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"chaczapuri<\/a>

basic version \u2014 khachapuri imeruli<\/p><\/div>\n

There are a couple different types of Georgian breads (or “pizzas” as Maks called them) but their names all sound quite similar.<\/p>\n

I got the impression that khachapuri imeruli<\/em>, the one with cheese inside, and khachapuri megruli, <\/em>with cheese on top,are bestsellers in each and every restaurant. There is also a “double cheese” version (with cheese inside and on top) \u2014 we found it in Beer Bar in Batumi, on the corner of the streets Pushkin and Lermontov \u2014 and it was delicious. If you feel like adding something to your menu, choose\u00a0Adjaruli k<\/em>hachapuri <\/em>in the shape of a boat, with cheese, raw egg and butter “swimming” in it.<\/p>\n

Our guidebook said that\u00a0Adjaruli k<\/em>hachapuri<\/em>\u00a0can be found only in Adjara region with Batumi as the capital city, near the Black Sea, but the one you can see below, which we ate in Baraka restaurant in Kutaisi also looked amazing, don’t you think?<\/p>\n

\"chaczapuri<\/a>

advanced version<\/p><\/div>\n

Khaczhpuri<\/em>\u00a0is a great starter, a good side order to meat dishes or stewed vegetables, and a convenient snack while you’re on the road. After 3 days of our stay in Georgia, we took them with us every time we drove from one place to another, as they taste very good also cold.<\/p>\n

And what if we feel we’ve had enough\u00a0k<\/em>hachapuri<\/em>? It’s high time for k<\/em>hinkali\u00a0<\/em>dumplings!<\/p>\n

KHINKALI<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Chinkali,<\/a>

tasting khinkali mix<\/p><\/div>\n

Khinkali\u00a0<\/i><\/b>are dumplings, which have the shape of a pocket with various fillings, usually meat, although you can also find versions with mushrooms, salty cheese or potatoes. Now and then you\u2019ll come across\u00a0khinkali <\/i>with salmon \u2014 they were of course Maks\u2019 favourite \ud83d\ude42 When eating khinkali <\/i>you have to know how to do it properly: the classic ones are filled with juicy meat seasoned with coriander. After boiling, inside the dumpling you\u2019ll find the meat and\u2026 some bullion. What you should do it to suck this bullion with your first bite and then eat the rest of the khinkali<\/i>. I have to confess that I didn\u2019t always manage to do it this way but \u0141ukasz was almost perfect at it \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"chinkali,<\/a>

how to eat khinkali<\/p><\/div>\n

Some say that the top of each dumpling should not be eaten but left on the plate \u2014 and this is what we did. Khinkali<\/i> is also a perfect way to eat on the budget: one dumpling costs about 0.50-0.60 lari (PLN 1.20-1.50). And I guarantee that having eaten 5-7 pieces you\u2019ll fill really full \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

In a local restaurant Piwny Bar<\/i>(Beer Bar) in Batumi, where our fellow guests were having a feast and eating a lot of khinkali<\/i> each, we managed to see how this specialty is prepared. Let\u2019s take a look:<\/p>\n

\"chinkali,<\/a>

how khinkali are made<\/p><\/div>\n

\"chinkali,<\/a>

filling and forming the perfect shape<\/p><\/div>\n

\"chinkali,<\/a>

almost ready…<\/p><\/div>\n

\"chinkali,<\/a>

what you’ve all been waiting for!<\/p><\/div>\n

SULGUNI<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apart from khachapuri <\/i>and khinkali<\/i>, in many bars and restaurants you\u2019ll find sulguni <\/i>cheese in the menu. <\/i>Ususally it is\u00a0served as a cheese platter<\/i>\u00a0or baked in the oven but from time to time you\u2019ll probably find such curiosities as cheese dumplings<\/i>. Now, I don\u2019t know what you would expect after hearing such name but I was waiting for some kind of\u2026 dumplings with cheese \ud83d\ude09 To my biggest surprise what landed on the table was melted cheese (in the shape of dumplings, I admit) which actually looked very similar to oven-baked sulguni<\/i>\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"ser<\/a>

oven-baked sulguni cheese<\/p><\/div>\n

\"sulguni,<\/a>

cheese dumplings – looks almost the same as the dish in the last picture \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

CHMERULI\u00a0AND OTHER DIHES FOR MEATLOVERS<\/b><\/p>\n

As you can see, Georgian cuisine is all about cheese, bread and bread-like specialties, which is served with every meal. However, meat lovers will also find something for themselves, including shashliks and chicken in a thick garlic sauce called chmeruli chicken<\/i>. This dish is quite unusual and very filling so I would recommend considering it a dinner for two \u2014 unless you\u2019re very very hungry!<\/p>\n

\"kurczak<\/a>

garlic chmeruli chicken<\/p><\/div>\n

In many places you\u2019ll also find pork with potatoes or pork, mutton and beef shashliks, although to be honest those specialties didn\u2019t appeal to us that much… What we liked much more were meatballs (made with minced meat), similar to koftas\u00b8<\/i> with pomegranate seeds inside\u2026<\/p>\n

\"shashlik,<\/a>

shashlik – not my favourite<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Gruzja,<\/a>

meat dinner in Tbilisi<\/p><\/div>\n

If this heavy and very cheesy Georgian cuisine seems too much for you, it\u2019s a good idea to try some vegetable dishes, most of which include an aubergine (such as aubergine with garlic or with nut paste and pomegranate), or peppers stuffed with nuts paste and pchali<\/i> pastes \u2014 with beetroot or spinach leaves. You can add a local salad with tomatoes and cucumbers sprinkled with ground walnuts\u2026 Aubergine or peppers with nuts paste + Georgian bread = yummy!<\/p>\n

\"bak\u0142a\u017cany,<\/a>

aubergine with nut paste and pomegranate<\/p><\/div>\n

\"bak\u0142a\u017cany<\/a>

aubergines, peppers and pchali<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Gruzja\"<\/a>

taking a rest from khinkali and khachapuri<\/p><\/div>\n

We also liked stewed vegetables, served saut\u00e9e or oven-baked with an egg. It\u2019s a rather heavy one but tastes amazing! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"duszone<\/a>

delicious!<\/p><\/div>\n

And of course the thing I\u2019ve mentioned before \u2014 bread. Huge and moist inside, and just perfect to be torn into pieces and eaten with stewed vegetables or with nuts paste\u2026 Maks also became its fan No. 1! \u00a0On our way from Kutaisi to Mestia (situated in the Georgian mountains), we stopped over in a small bakery in Zugdidi to see how this delicious bread is made. So, the dough is \u201cthrown\u201d on the inside, hot walls of the oven and then the baker \u201cdives\u201d into it to take the bread out. Quite an interesting process, don\u2019t you think? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"chleb,<\/a>

Maks and his Georgian bread<\/p><\/div>\n

\"gruzi\u0144ski<\/a>

in a bakery in Zugdidi<\/p><\/div>\n

\"chaczapuri,<\/a>

a “dive” into the oven!<\/p><\/div>\n

As a well-known chocolate lover (and generally a fan of sweets), I couldn\u2019t of course forget about desserts. In this case, Georgia didn\u2019t really come to my expectations. On the other hand, it was so hot there that I can\u2019t say I missed sweets that much\u2026<\/p>\n

Talking of sweets, what should you try when you\u2019re in Georgia? Well, definitely churchele<\/i><\/b>, which is a combination of something sweet and a healthy snack \u2014 comes in very handy during long car journeys. Churchele<\/i> are made with nuts and grape jelly and then dried. Honestly? When you see them for the first time they don\u2019t look especially attractive, don\u2019t you think? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

\"churchele,<\/a>

and..? \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

\"churchele,<\/a>

that’s how churchele look inside \u2014 and ready to be eaten<\/p><\/div>\n

And?… Looks a bit like a sausage or maybe a\u2026 candle? Either way, it tastes great! My mum, for whom we brought some churchele<\/i> to try wasn\u2019t that happy at first, but then tried a bit and said \u201eOh my, this is good!\u201d<\/p>\n

The next dessert we tasted was pelamushi, <\/i><\/b>which is something between a jelly, a pudding and grapes marmalade, sprinkled of course with walnuts\u2026 There is a funny story connected with this dessert and with the Georgian people speaking English: when we were trying to order our food on one of the busiest small streets in Tibilisi\u2019s Old Town, the waitress for 5 minutes tried to convince us that \u201cdrink menu\u201d was in fact the \u201cdessert menu\u201d, and for the next 5 minutes we were trying to establish the names of two desserts\u2026 Finally we got an apple pie insted of a baked apple \ud83d\ude09 Still, we did manage to get pelamushi<\/i> and it is definitely worth recommending.<\/p>\n

\"pelamushi,<\/a>

walnuts for dessert again<\/p><\/div>\n

I guess that all when it comes to the basics of the Georgian cuisine. So what would you fancy? Khachapuri, khinkali<\/i> or maybe churchele<\/i>? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

PS. Maks, our two-year-old buddy, didn\u2019t really take to the local Georgian specialties. I\u2019ll tell you pretty soon how we dealt with this problem \ud83d\ude42 I will also invite you to Tibilisi, Batumi, rocky Uplistsikhe and the city of lovers, Signagi. No lack of Internet connection will stand in our way now, so I can officially announce the beginning of the Georgian week! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cuisine in Georgia? Delicious, served in abundance, quite simple and rather cheap. The portions are enormous, although not expensive, therefore after almost each lunch or dinner you’re left with a few pieces of khachapuri bread to take home with you. What is an absolute culinary must in\u00a0Tbilisi, Batumi and the Caucasus Mountains? Well, there is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2990,2985,2982,2984,3006,2981],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nKhinkali, khachapuri and churchele \u2014 discovering the Georgian cuisine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Khinkali, khachapuri and churchele to name only a few Georgian specialties. 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