shain

Baklava. Two types - One made with walnuts and pistachios. Flavored with tahini, anise seed, orange zest and cinnamon. Lightly soaked with rose water flavored syrup. The other made with hazelnuts and walnuts. Flavored with cinnamon, a hint of coffee and cardamom. Same rose syrup.

Indian-style chickpea sandwiches. Pan fried in butter. Flavored with falafel spices (toasted cumin, coriander, sesame, garlic). Yogurt and chopped onion. Tomato salad with butter-toasted fennel seeds and vinegar.

So after our visit to the market we were quite hungry and headed to launch at Barbarestan which specialises in local cuisine using indigenous ingredients. It was a little posh, which I'm not a fan of (I rather pour my water myself, thank you very much!) - but very professional, friendly and knowledgeable. The location: Sorry for the poor image quality, the lightning was very dim. Our starter was a plate of four pkhalis and two types of home-baked breads. The breads were: A "pita" flavored with ground walnuts - Crisp and very thin, delicate and gently buttered. A rye bread, very dense and earthy, but too dry. The phkali were: Caramelized onions with vinegar and walnuts. Gently sweet and refreshing with some hints of purple basil. Wild garlic greens with herbs. Lightly cooked and still crisp. The flavor is similar to leek. Flavored with cold pressed sunflower oil, gently sweet-tart reduced vinegar. Almond paste. Rich and creamy but not smooth. Strong sweet almond flavor. Spinach with crunchy ground walnuts. Gentle garlic flavor. Topped with grated smoked sulguni cheese. We also had local wines - a red dry Saperavi and a semi-dry white whose grape-variety I forgot. Lovely china: Our main: Variety of mushrooms pan fried in butter. Cream of pureed roasted carrot - flavoured with cumin, coriander seeds dill and fennel seeds. Cheesy potato puree. Peas and carrots. My only complaint is that the purees were getting cold too quickly - the large surface area and my slow eating are to blame. Roast beef with spinach and tarragon sauce. The roast beef seemed very good to me, tender and pink. I was told it was indeed tasty. The sauce was flavored with tarragon, vinegar, cumin, coriander, fennel and cilantro. Crisp baked potato puree with cheese. The espresso was good, which is rare in Georgia. But it could have some more crema. The china still adorable. We shared two desserts that were the highlight of the meal. The first is palamushi - a thick wine pudding, traditionally a homey dessert served simply in a bowl or free standing and topped with nuts. Here it was served as two rounds each from a different wine. The red tasted very ripe and quite tannic. The white tasted fresh, fruity and gently acidic, riesling-like in flavor. Both tender, thick and lightly sweetened. Along them - biscuit crumbs, wine jellies (those were a little alcohol, which I didn't like in a jello form), strawberries, white chocolate moss, and gozinaki - small slabs of walnuts in chewy caramel. The second was an almond dacquoise. served over raspberry coulis. Topped with whipped goat milk cheese creme and basil.A meringue with rose water and dried petals. This was on the sweet side but still our favorite thing on the meal. I loved the combination of raspberry with basil, rose, almonds and fruit is a classic pairing . The goat cheese was also a good touch. Sadly I the server was too quick to crush the meringue with a spoon and I missed the photo op. See a better one here.

Thanks! That's good to know, I like a good negroni, never had one with mezcal.

@chefmd How were the cocktails? I'm flying with United this weekend.

Sorry, I'm not very familiar with American tomato variaties, at least not by name. I saw mostly two types of tomatoes, one a "classic" in shape and flavor. The other similar to a small beefsteak tomato. Interestingly, I saw not a single cherry tomatoe.

A few more photos from the market: Plenty of garlic Dill seeds Roseheaps Such a small stock - I can only reason that it's all grown by the seller. And commercial quantities of cabbage. Ripe tomatoes Purslane, it grows like a weed here, I don't cook with it as often as I should. Many shoes - there are much more inside the shop/shed. That's the more "orderly" area.

That's a lovely video, thanks! I can only guess their reasons, but they sure do it expertly. In the fourth part, one woman mentions in English that "they are happy that the guests from America are interested in their traditions" - we are lucky to live in a time where traditions from across the world are so easily recorded and shared. Thanks! You are right, it's not a tourist attraction, it could even be considered unpleasant in parts, by western standards. Quoting this site: Deserters' Market got its name when the Civil war took place. Deserters came here to sell their clothes, accoutrements and weapons. The war came to its end, the deserters left the market and Georgian salespeople came instead of them to sell their stuff.

I do long for the day where more banana cultivars will be available here (same for many other fruits), it's hard to know how much we are missing - imagine only having a single type of citrus, squash or pepper/chili. Sadly in terms of disease resilience, the Lady Finger banana is too closely related to the common Cavendish, so it's suspicable to the same diseases.

I've picked those bananas a week ago. They had some time to wrippen. I was hoping to take a picture of the bundle, but they were slipping out of their peels and off the branch. Those are lady fingers, by the way. I like my bananas a bit more mature and by today they were getting there. They are not overly sweet, with more acidity and less starch texture compared to market bananas.

Kung pao tofu.

Frittata with smoked mozzarella, spinach, mushrooms. Pumpernickel and sour cream.

Cevizli sucuk = walnut sausage I'm not sure about the origin of this sweet (though from my reading it seems to originate in Georgia), but the Turks are masters of sweets, so I'm it's delicious there.

@heidih Thanks for the link to the blog - it seems great. I'll have to check it later. I'm not sure what candy you are referring to, but churchkhela can be found in Turkey, where it is called "sujuk", after the dry sausage that it resembles (@rotuts so it seems you are not alone in seeing the similarity ). @Hassouni Good churchkhela really is amazing. It's not those on the market, though, I'll get to write about the good stuff in a couple of posts.

Later that day we headed to the "deserters" market". This is a very down-to-earth, old-style market, and the taxi driver was very surprised that we were headed there. Sulguni cheese, plain and smoked. Churchkhela. Pomegranate juice, freshly squeezed. Meat and fish. I'll spare you from more pictures of unrefrigerated meat, organs and pig heads. Also, to make clear, in most areas of the markets the meat is sold chilled, clean and hygienic. Pickles and pickling herbs. Beans

Spanokopita with roasted sweet potato (along with the obvious spinach and feta). Flavored with some dill, nutmeg, garlic, pepper, oregano.

30% whole wheat sandwich bread with sesame and bean water. The spread consisted of eggplant salad, semi-soft boiled eggs, tomatoes, onion, pickles, tahini, schug.

Sandwich bread with 30% whole wheat, minced leftover beans and their cooking water, sesame. It was flavorful, earthy but not very beany, the bean starches made it very soft and tender.

They are, it seems that the Georgian has a lot of care for their produce and ingredients. Many street-side vendors are selling what to me seems like a ridiculously small amount of stock, probably grown by themselves.

A walk around Tbilisi. Here we mostly went through the neighborhoods a little further from the main streets and the old town. There a nice parks and many small shops. Vendors in small stalls are selling vegetables, herbs and fruits at every street corner, and the produce is top notch. On our way, we bought a few truffles in a small shop. Nothing outstanding, but decent. The joy was sitting at the lovely park, eating them while watching the pigeons.

Fettuccini in mushrooms and cream with toasted breadcrumbs.

Kugel, not the log-cooked Jerusalmi version, but rather one made with apples, cinnamon, raisins, nuts and brown sugar. The crisp top is the best part.

Thanks. Completely agree about the paleness, but I was using a broiler (got no torch) and was worried about overcooking the custard.

Roasted eggplant mabaha. Eggplant roasted over fire, the interior chopped and mixed with tender hot chickpeas, tahini, yogurt, garlic, parsley, cumin. Topped with tomato, onion and pickles. Served with schug and pita breads.

Creme brulee.