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Toasted pasta in caramelised onion sauce. With browned butter, sage, a hint of mace, pecorino, lots of pepper, chives.

In Tbilisi, we stayed at the same hotel as in the first night of our trip. Breakfast was, as before, very nice. It's a small hotel, and the lovely owner was cooking the food. Tone bread. Meat khinkali (very soupy and tasty filing, I've been told). Tasty tomatoes with onion and parsley (I missed the herb mixture that she the previous time). Kartopilis Ghvezeli - a pastry filled with potatoes and pan fried until crisp. The potato flavour was very strong, we sadly don't get such flavorful potatoes in Israel. The highlight was the eggplant salad, made of roasted or perhaps fried eggplants, shredded and flavoured with a small amount of briefly cooked tomatoes, finely chopped walnuts, paprika and garlic.

A few more images from the supermarket. There were many things in bulk - pastas, candies, cookies, flour, grains, beans. Everything also available packed, of course. I think that that's a sort of cultural thing perhaps to remind people of the traditional markets, or to give a sense of the supermarket being economical/cheap. I must say, that while I too should prefer to buy my goods packed, or stored more "properly", the place was very modern, clean and well tended. The goods were refilled often, and I would be perfectly OK with eating from it. Also, and the local pizza khachapuri hut:

A late dinner in a lovely garden in a quite neighborhood. Sorry for the bad pictures, I had to use flash. Green beans in walnut sauce with cream, dill, parsley and a hint of rosemary. The menu mentioned eggs, but I couldn't notice them. Some feta, it was soft and good, but out of place. Same thing for the roasted tomato. I really loved this dish - the rich nuts and cream, well cooked beans and herbs came out just right. I'll be sure to recreate it myself. Forest mushroom, fried in butter with sea salt. Crisp and buttery, chewy but overly salty. Apkhazura - Spiced pork & beef sausages in natural casing - pan fried and served with mushed potato (too dry), tkemali(sour plum sauce) and onion. Also some very good local wines. Tbilisi.

Those are various khinkali.

Just before entering Tbilisi, we stopped at the large modern mall for some shopping. Now I'll anything to avoid shopping, unless it's for groceries or cooking, of course The supermarket was neat and modern, and I've bought my share of Georgian snack, wine and ingredients. The wine section was huge, as one would expect from this country and I was also intrigued by the large bulk-goods section.

You are right about the khachapuri, looking at the picture again those are obviously cheese filled, with the left one being the laminated penovani khachapuri that you mentioned. Both are not looking very good, honestly. They are best eaten fresh from the oven. My ability to read Cyrillic was just good enough to understand this part of the label, so indeed I found it funny. Only later I managed to decipher the rest, and regret not trying it.

Charred zucchini in tomatoes, lemon zest and zaatar. Labneh. Bulgur. Quick unyeasted flat-bread. Cider with raspberry and cucumber. Now that was a disappointment, tasted like an overly sweet, artificial soda.

I think it's simpler to just add rose water to taste. That said, I'm not sure about it's paring here. I never had rose water in savoury applications, if I recall correctly.

Soup - Roasted sunchoke, chickpeas, carrot, pumpkin (pureed), spinach, celery, rosemary spices (incl. turmeric, fenugreek, cumin, paprika). Fattoush salad.

Faloodeh - Persian frozen noodle dessert. Flavored with rose water, lime zest and an Amarena cherry. Rose water and lime is an amazing flavor combo.

Smokey pad won sen.

Ajar from roasted peppers. Romanian style eggplant and pepper preserve.

Makloubeh and eggplant salad with tahini and yogurt. The makloubeh got quite stuck - I believe that I added too much liquid by mistake.

Apologies for being so slow with posting, it's a busy month. So still on the road Westwards towards Tbilisi, we stopped at a local farmers market. Many sellers had very small stocks, to my understanding they were selling their gardens crop. A few sellers were selling at larger scales. Pickling herbs - bay, dill/fennel blossoms and seed heads. Corn, flour, beans (seemingly only cranberry and similar cultivars, I haven't seen any other type sold or used), sunflower seeds are popular as snack. Aromatic herbs, bery fresh and can be smelled all around (dill, cilantro, parsley, purple basil, tiny scallions). Also lettuce and radishes. Delicious sweet peppers and green hot chilies. We were passing by Surami, where I've read one can find Nazuki, a traditional sweet bread flavored with spices and baked in a wood fired tonis oven, rarely found anywhere else [image]. I was excited to have the chance to sample such a regional specialty. The sellers at the market pointed us to the nearby bakery, where the two old ladies there shook their heads and explained in a mixture of English and Russian that we should head on towards the town. So we did. We spent a while there, enjoying the small town and the nearby village. But the bread was nowhere to be found

Thank you I wanted to highlight the smokey flavors in this dish, so I felt toasted sesame should work. I think that walnuts whould be good as well, they have a smokey quality too.

Bucatini, roasted eggplant, lightly cooked tomato sauce, pan fried mushrooms, smoked paprika. Pecorino romano, toasted sesame.

All of the vines are in gardens. One of the pictures shows a small fenced garden, with a vine it, which didn't seem to belong to any house. In it was an unpictured stone bench, facing the river. Oh, I'd wish! Actually I'm long since back. The vacation was only 9 (busy) days long. I'm posting this blog in retrospect, and admittedly taking a while between posts, so it may look like a pretty long vacation.

It was time to head back towards the city of Tbilisi, which is the last stop in our trip. This is to be a few hours long drive, plus some stops along the way. At first we went through a small village at the outskirt of Borjomi, where locals were shopping for groceries. This man was buying puri. After a short drive we went off the main road and entered the river-side village of Rveli. We admired the quiet atmosphere and greenery by the small river. Many gardens and fruit bearing trees - apples, pears, quince, walnuts and grape vines. The locals greeted us and were amused by the presence of tourists. Pigs were walking around, sniffing the ground for walnuts. This big girl was enclosed, and was pleased when we had thrown nuts for her to eat.

@TdeV @kayb

Wet mixture: 40g toasted walnuts, roughly chopped 1 tbsp butter for frying 1 large onion, diced 2 stalks celery, finely diced 3 eggs 2 teaspoons brown sugar 130g strained yogurt (I originally used part sour cream, but I found the result too rich) 4 tablespoons chopped parsley, cilantro, basil and/or dill Dry mixture: 110g AP flour 1 to 1.5 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder Spices: 2 teaspoons paprika Dried chili to taste 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, ground 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, ground 1 teaspoon caraway seeds, ground 1 teaspoon dill seeds, ground 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, ground 1 teaspoon thyme Optional: 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast or a pinch of MSG Fry the onion in butter until well browned. Add the celery and cook until softened. In a large bowl, mix the wet mixture ingredients and vegetables. Mix the dry mixture ingredients and spices in a separate bowl. Heat a large pan over medium-low flame. Coat it with melted butter. mix the dry mixture into the wet and mix until well combined. Don't over mix. Pour into the well heated pan and cover it. Cook for apx. 9-12 minutes until the bottom is browned (but not dark). Flip and cook for another 5-7 minutes until cooked through. Flip again, and just prior to serving, re-crisp the bottom over medium flame. Serve hot, along with strained yogurt or sour cream, and tomatoes. - Spices can be adjusted to taste. - By removing the onion, celery, nuts and spices, you will be left with a base recipe that you can flavour in many ways.

It's powder-risen, and uses eggs for structure. The crumb is therefore eggy and pancakey, but still feels mostly like bread in texture. I used quite a bit of spices and herbs here. Also forgot to mention the caramelized onions and celery. The thick batter is poured into a buttered pan and fried and crisp. I can share the recipe of you are interested.

I found the Georgian cuisine to be very vegetarian friendly. Meats are very popular; but the custom of lent, the availability of dairy products, delicious produce and love of baked goods all result in many vegetarian dishes being present. During the trip I had no problem finding delicious and varied dishes to try.

It's been a while since my trip to Georgia, and I started to feel the craving for some Georgian food. I choose to not yet make any dish that I had on the trip, rather opting to make dishes inspired by the cuisine. Celery, beans and peanuts salad, in a red-wine vinegar and olive oil dressing, garlic, coriander seeds, cilantro, parsley, mint, basil, chili. A pan-fried quick bread with walnuts and spices (coriander, paprika, cumin, dill seeds, caraway), sour cream, cilantro, basil, dill. A dish I made a few times before - a spread of grilled eggplants, toasted walnuts, coriander seeds, garlic, cilantro, carob syrup.

I think that I'm on to something. Took a pita bread from my favorite bakery. Very fluffy with an elastic, well gelatinised crumb. Filled it with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil + some salt. Then heat it all up (covered in a moist towel) until the cheese melted. Served with some OO for dipping. What I got was in a way closer to the "Neapolitan pizza ideal" than any pizza I've made. The interior crumb soaked the cheese and tomato juices and was reminiscent of a pizza's top layer. The pocket kept the cheese hot and prevented it from drying and solidifying.