The love for Georgian food

We heard of a story about an authentic French restaurant in Batumi closed down eventually after 2 years, because Georgians walk in there and leave right away if they cannot find Georgian food on the menu. In Tbilisi, we also find a lot of Thai-Georgian, Indian-Georgian, International Georgian restaurants. They must love their own food so much. In fact, Georgia does have interesting menu, appetizers like Badrijani Nigvzit (eggplant roll with walnut paste), mchadi (cornbread), khachapuri (bread with cheese stuffing); main course, such as, satsivi (chicken in walnut sauce), mtsvadi (grilled meat), khinkali (meat dumpling, very similar to Shanghai dumpling), ostri (meat stew in tomato sauce), chakhapuri (meat stew with plum sauce) and desert, such as churchkhela (threaded walnut covered with grape juice and flour mixture, then hung dry).

Actually all these dishes could be included in one menu and after a while in Georgia, we do feel comforting to find the same dishes in any eatery. In a short while, we could memorize all these names and order without a menu, like a local.

The only thing is, their English menu, if a restaurant managed to have one, don’t always have accurate price. We read the menu before order and are told that we are charged more because the menu was not updated and they have new prices for everything. I guess the local don’t ask for price and don’t need to read any menu. They pay as they are told. Unfortunately, as budget travelers, we found ourselves arguing the bill with the cashier all the time.

Well, the amazing thing is, if you bump into a party at the next table, you will always hear guys singing wonderful dining a capella and they might treat you some of their local homemade wine.