Love Georgia

Georgian Food

No two valleys cook it the same.

A country the size of Ireland with a dozen kitchens in it. Cornbread on one side of a mountain range, wheat on the other. Walnuts ground into everything in the west, tarragon eaten by the fistful in the east, and every region sure its khachapuri is the right one.

Pull up a chair
A Georgian table seen from above: beans in a clay dish, a round khachapuri cut into wedges, a plate of khinkali, pkhali with pomegranate seeds, and a bowl of wine

The first thing to know

One low mountain range splits the country’s appetite in two.

West of the Likhi

Wet, green, subtropical.

Cornmeal instead of wheat, young cheese in everything, walnuts ground into sauces, and heat, from Megrelian ajika above all.

  • Mchadi & ghomi
  • Sulguni
  • Ajika
  • Walnut sauces

East of the Likhi

Dry, continental, vine-covered.

Wheat bread slapped onto the walls of a clay tone oven, meat over vine cuttings, armfuls of fresh herbs, and far less chilli.

  • Tonis puri
  • Mtsvadi
  • Tarragon & coriander
  • Khinkali

The kitchen atlas

Pick a region. Here’s what they’ll put in front of you.

Ask for a dish outside its home region and you’ll get it, along with an opinion about how it’s made back there.

Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali Region are Georgian land under Russian occupation. Their kitchens are carried on today by families who were forced out. Why

West of the Likhi

Imereti

Georgia's most reliable kitchen, and the one the rest of the country quietly measures itself against.

  • Imeruli khachapuriიმერული ხაჭაპური

    The round, closed one: cheese sealed inside a soft dough. When a Georgian just says khachapuri, this is usually it.

  • Imeretian cheeseიმერული ყველი

    Young, mild and salty. The cheese inside half the country's khachapuri comes from this style.

  • Pkhaliფხალი

    Spinach, beet greens or leeks pounded with walnuts and herbs, pressed into balls and studded with pomegranate.

  • Mchadiმჭადი

    Flat, dense cornbread cooked on a griddle, the West's everyday answer to wheat.

Imeretian saffronWalnutsYoung cheeseCornmeal

Khachapuri · ხაჭაპური

Cheese and bread. Every region folds it differently.

  • Imeruli

    იმერული

    Imereti

    Round and sealed. The benchmark.

  • Megruli

    მეგრული

    Samegrelo

    Round, with more cheese melted on top.

  • Acharuli

    აჭარული

    Adjara

    A boat, yolk and butter at its centre.

  • Guruli

    ღვეზელი

    Guria

    A crescent with boiled egg inside.

  • Penovani

    ფენოვანი

    Everywhere

    Flaky layered dough, folded square.

  • Kubdari

    კუბდარი

    Svaneti

    The cousin: same idea, filled with meat.

A khinkali from the side: the knot of dough on top, the pleats running down from it, broth and filling inside1234
  1. 1Kudi. The knot on top. Your handle, not your food.
  2. 2Pleats. A well-made one is said to have at least nineteen.
  3. 3Broth. Raw meat sealed in, so its juice turns to soup.
  4. 4Filling. Beef and pork, onion, pepper; herbs if you're in the city.

Khinkali · ხინკალი

A dumpling with rules.

Khinkali came down from the mountains of Mtiuleti, Pshavi and Khevsureti, where they’re still made plainly with meat, onion and pepper. Tbilisi added coriander and called its version kalakuri, “city style”. They’re ordered by the piece, rarely fewer than five a person, and there is one correct way to eat them.

  1. Step 1

    Pepper

    Grind black pepper over the plate. That's the only seasoning you add.

  2. Step 2

    Hold the hat

    Pick it up by the kudi, the knot of dough on top, and turn it upside down. No knife, no fork.

  3. Step 3

    Bite and sip

    Take a small bite from the side and drink the broth out before it runs down your wrist.

  4. Step 4

    Leave the kudi

    Eat the rest and put the knot back on the plate. It's too thick to eat, and it's how the table counts.

The pantry

What makes it taste Georgian.

Most of it is sold in heaps by weight at any market. The Dezerter Bazaar in Tbilisi is a good start.

  • Khmeli suneli

    ხმელი სუნელი

    Literally 'dry spices': a blend of fenugreek, coriander, marigold, dill and more.

  • Utskho suneli

    უცხო სუნელი

    Blue fenugreek. Nutty and faintly sweet, it's the flavour most visitors can't place.

  • Imeretian saffron

    ზაფრანა

    Not saffron at all but dried marigold petals, for colour in walnut sauces.

  • Svanetian salt

    სვანური მარილი

    Salt ground with garlic, chilli, coriander and blue fenugreek. It improves almost anything.

  • Ajika

    აჯიკა

    Megrelian paste of hot red pepper, garlic and herbs. Use less than you think.

  • Tkemali

    ტყემალი

    Sour plum sauce. Green in spring from unripe plums, red later in the year.

  • Walnuts

    ნიგოზი

    Ground into bazhe, satsivi and pkhali. The backbone of the western Georgian table.

  • Pomegranate

    ბროწეული

    Scattered over pkhali and mtsvadi, and pressed into the sourest sauces.

  • Tarragon

    ტარხუნა

    Eaten raw by the handful, stewed into chakapuli, and turned into a bright green soda.

The supra · სუფრა

The food is half of it. The other half is the toasts.

A proper feast has a tamada, a toastmaster chosen by the table, who proposes each toast in turn. Others add to it with an alaverdi, taking up the theme when the tamada passes it on. The order changes from table to table, but it tends to run like this.

  1. Peace

    მშვიდობა

    Very often the first: to God, and to peace.

  2. Georgia

    საქართველო

    To the country, and to why this table is gathered.

  3. The hosts

    მასპინძელი

    To the house, and the people who fed you.

  4. Parents

    მშობლები

    To mothers and fathers, living and not.

  5. The departed

    მიცვალებული

    To those no longer at the table. Glasses are not clinked.

  6. Children

    ბავშვები

    To the young, and the generations still to come.

  7. Women

    ქალები

    To the women of the family and of the table.

  8. Love & friendship

    სიყვარული

    And then on, for as long as the tamada decides.

Drink when the toast is made, not between them. Guests are not expected to keep up, and nobody minds if you don’t.

What’s in the glass

When to come hungry

The menu follows the year.

  1. Spring

    Chakapuli, green tkemali, pickled jonjoli flowers

    Tarragon and sour plums arrive together, just in time for Easter lamb and red-dyed eggs.

  2. Summer

    Tomato & cucumber salad, fresh cheese, mtsvadi

    Tomatoes with walnuts and Kakhetian sunflower oil, and everything cooked outdoors.

  3. Autumn

    Churchkhela, pelamushi, the new wine

    Rtveli, the grape harvest. Must is boiled down for sweets before it's fermented.

  4. Winter

    Satsivi, gozinaki, gvezeli

    New Year means walnuts in honey, walnuts in sauce, and a table that isn't cleared for days.

Vegan by tradition.

For the Orthodox fasts, above all the seven weeks of Great Lent before Easter, observant Georgians give up meat, dairy and eggs. Menus fill with pkhali, lobio, walnut-stuffed aubergine (badrijani nigvzit) and mushrooms baked in ketsi. They taste like a feast, not a sacrifice. The word to look for on a menu is markhva, the fast.

Gaumarjos

A guest is a gift from God, and at a Georgian table they will make sure you feel like one.

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