Traveling in Georgia 2018

[shain]

We took a challenging and breathtaking drive through Truso valley.

 

And ended it with a nice hike up to Zakagori fortress. 

 

(clicky picture 👆) 

 

Edited October 4, 2018 by shain (log)

[Shelby]

What altitude are you at here?

[shain]

8 minutes ago, Shelby said:

What altitude are you at here?

 

The area is 7300ft above the sea level, the fortress is on a large hill, maybe 20 meters above the surrounding - just enough to have a good view around.

Edited October 4, 2018 by shain (log)

[shain]

From here we proceed to Stepantsminda. After a long day of driving and hiking,  it was getting late, and our bellies were rumbling went, therefore we headed straight for lunch.

 

A mushroom soup was more of a vegetable soup with mushrooms, it was flavorfull, spices with paprika. But the highlight was the dill - it was strong but had a delicate sweet flavor, it took the soup into another level. 

 

A beef soup was reported to me as being tasty but not very rich, it smelled of paprika, cilantro and caraway.

A serving of tonis bread was not fresh and lacked the crispness and tenderness I loved.

 

A Greek salad arrived due to a misunderstanding (most Georgians we met had hardship with English, and it being my second language didn't help either). It wasn't exactly a greek salad (where's the olive oil?). But the vegetables in Georgia are always very good, especially the peppers.

 

A salad with walnut dressing was disappointing, as the scatter of (tasty) walnut powder failed to connect with the vegetables. Later renditions we will have will have this made into a real sauce with vinegar and tossed, which works much better.

 

The lobiani (which is not really a khachapuri, since it has no cheese) was delicious. The dough slightly acidic from yogurt, warm, flaky and tender. The filling of coarsely grinded beans tasty, flavored with bay and butter.

 

The unpictured kebabs were served with fresh onion and were reported to me as being decent, flavored with garlic, cilantro, cumin and chili - much like kebabs one often finds in Israel. 

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2018 by shain (log)

[ElsieD]

52 minutes ago, shain said:

 

The area is 7300ft above the sea level, the fortress is on a large hill, maybe 20 meters above the surrounding - just enough to have a good view around.

 

 

That's up there!  How's your breathing?  Stunning scenery.

[heidih]

y ground beans do you mean dried,soaked like falafel or somethung else? Intereting and enticing.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, shain said:

 

Ohh, green beans in walnut sauce was one of the tastiest things I had on our trip. I'll get to post about it soon enough. I'm also sure to make it myself eventually, so I'll be happy to hear about the recipe you follow and about your results.

However, I only seen pkhali referring to minced vegetables with walnuts, so I wonder if I'm missing a whole range of dishes.

 

In her recipe (p 257) Capalbo calls for pureeing half the beans and cutting the rest of the beans into 1 inch pieces.  By contrast, Tiko Tuskadze in her recipe for Mtsvane Lobios Pkhali calls for the beans to be simply sliced before cooking, still with bite, and not pureed.  My beans were young, tiny haricots verts so I left them whole.  Also I am lazy.

 

My favorite pkhali remains Ispanakhis Pakhali, I think.  That's spinach with walnut sauce.

 

 

[shain]

3 hours ago, ElsieD said:

That's up there!  How's your breathing?  Stunning scenery.

 

The height wasn't very noticeable, the hike and climb while ,not very long, were quite tiring and we had to stop quite often. In retrospect it might be the cause, but I was guessing that I'm just out of shape.  What's sure is that the air was crisp and chill, and also very dry. It was welcome change from the humidity and heat of my home town which is by the coast.

 

2 hours ago, heidih said:

y ground beans do you mean dried,soaked like falafel or somethung else? Intereting and enticing.

 

They were cooked and chopped/mashed, much like coarse refried beans (but without onion). They were also of a cultiver similar to pinto beans.

 

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

In her recipe (p 257) Capalbo calls for pureeing half the beans and cutting the rest of the beans into 1 inch pieces.  By contrast, Tiko Tuskadze in her recipe for Mtsvane Lobios Pkhali calls for the beans to be simply sliced before cooking, still with bite, and not pureed.  My beans were young, tiny haricots verts so I left them whole.  Also I am lazy.

 

My favorite pkhali remains Ispanakhis Pakhali, I think.  That's spinach with walnut sauce.

 

 

 

The version I had was made of halved beans as well. I don't recall ever eating pureed/mashed green beans.

My favorite pkhali is the one wrapped with bell peppers.

 

[Shelby]

4 hours ago, shain said:

 

The area is 7300ft above the sea level, the fortress is on a large hill, maybe 20 meters above the surrounding - just enough to have a good view around.

 

Interesting!  Why are there no trees?  In Colorado the tree line is about 11,000 ft.  

[Smithy]

The food and the scenery are all beautiful, and I'm enjoying this virtual trip. Have you discovered any foods or cooking techniques that you intend to add to your home-cooking repertoire?

[shain]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

The food and the scenery are all beautiful, and I'm enjoying this virtual trip. Have you discovered any foods or cooking techniques that you intend to add to your home-cooking repertoire?

 

Thanks! I sure have some new ideas and insights - I took many notes during the trip. I will be sure to mention in future posts when something had inspired me. From what I shared so far, I'm sure to revisit the lobiani (and other khachapuris), the eggplant with walnut and garlic paste and try my own take on the filled mushrooms.

[shain]

After finding a place to stay the night, and having a short rest, we asked the lovely homeowner for a recommendation of a stroll we can take before nightfall. She pointed us to a nearby grove and a hill-side church.

 

 

It was more than a short stroll, but given the chill weather and crisp air, is suited us just right.

 

When we returned, we were offered tea and cakes (the later we passed) and after grabbing some warmer clothes, proceeded to go out to the town.

It's a quite place, the short main street mostly populated by restaurants and a few grocers with cozy stores.

 

We found a pleasant restaurant to eat dinner at.

We ordered a decent dry Saperavi wine, and a refreshing local lager.

Khinkali, flavored with aromatic herbs, but I was told the filling wasn't as pleasantly soupy as some we had before.

Pkhali plate.

- Spinach and walnuts pkhali is a classic, mildly garlicky and not very creamy. 

- Nadugi is made of farmers cheese and mint. It could have been more strongly flavored, overall our least favored.

- Eggplant pkhali was made of coarsely chopped fried eggplant, which seemed not to work as well in this form (compared to a smoother texture). But was otherwise delicious, very toasty and flavorful.

- Pepper wrapped pkhali had a mildly sweet filling of walnuts with garlic and either a small amount of tomato, or juices from the peppers soaked into it. Very reminiscent of muhammara. The sweetness of the fries/roasted pepper and tartness from some wine vinegar, worked great with the creamy nutty filling. This was one of the tastiest things I had on the trip.

- Crisp and warm mchadi (corn bread), was tender from the inside and much more pleasant than the one we had yesterday.

 

Chakhragina, which I missunderstood as a khachapuri-like pastry, filled with beetroot, tarragon and cheese, turned out to be filled with chard instead of beets. The dough, somewhat pale, wasn't as flaky or crisp as the lobiani we had earlier this day. The filling was also a bit disappointing, I'm OK with chard, but doesn't love it. The cheese and tarragon both being mild and muted. I still think that a pastry filled with beetroots, cheese and tarragon will surely be a winner, I might give it a chance, tough I might opt for filo dough.

 

The portions were so big. We took with us the leftover pkhali. They were too tasty to toss, and won't require reheating.

 

Edited October 6, 2018 by shain (log)

[sartoric]

Wow, a great insight into the cuisine !

Thanks for sharing @shain.

[heidih]

Wow such thoughtful and in depth explanations - thank you.  With all the walnut talk,perhaps I missed it - did you see large groves and are there unusual uses of walnuts above pastes and sauces? 

Edited October 6, 2018 by heidih (log)

[shain]

13 hours ago, heidih said:

Wow such thoughtful and in depth explanations - thank you.  With all the walnut talk,perhaps I missed it - did you see large groves and are there unusual uses of walnuts above pastes and sauces? 

 

Thanks!

There are plenty of walnuts trees, I haven't seen groves but they are planted in many gardens and parks. In There are also many chestnut trees, Tbilisi in particular is scattered with chestnuts. Both trees were baring fruits at this time of year, and the ground was littered with nuts.

It seems that walnuts are mostly used in chopped and ground forms, and again mostly as a method of flavoring and enriching various sauces and salads. Some interesting dishes are chicken in walnut sauce, chirbuli (which I'll describe shakshuka with walnuts).  They are often used whole in desserts such as churchkhela, gozinaki and as a garnish to desserts such as pelamushi. They are also used in cakes. I was looking for preserved green walnuts, but haven't seen them served or sold anywhere.

[shain]

Breakfast at the guesthouse.

 

Some pan-cakes of sorts (definitely not pancakes, though) a sort of sponge cake, slightly dry, crispy on the outside, eggy in flavor, generously sprinkled with crisp sugar.

Sour cream, farmers cheese, plum preserve - those are mixed together. Some tonis bread, a little dry. We chatted with the homeowner about the farmer cheese and their usage, she mentioned that she makes cheese cakes and Russian syrniki.

We were also served omelettes, a few sliced vegetables, and sulguni cheese

We made two cups of the turkish coffee we brought with us.

 

I wan't in the mode for sweets, so I had my omelette, and sampled the cakes and cheeses with plum preserve.

 

View from the room:

 

 

Many animals are free to walk the town. No shortage of foliage for them.

 

[shain]

It's a beautiful and interesting town. Very rural at parts, but quite active at its center.

The "Red coffee bus".

 

Not far from the hotel, we found this bakery. Not much to imply it's being one, other then the smell of wood fire and the sweet scent of bread being baked.

The small sign on the window specifies the price of tonis puri at 75 tetri, which are 30 cents.

 

A single baker salling only one bread. He is skillfully shaping the dough, stretching it over a special pillow and stick onto the tone oven wall. 

 

Ofcourse we bought a bread. 

Notice the hole where a hook was used to pull the bread out of the oven. They are quite large, measuring nearly 25" in length.

 

It was as delicious as only freshly baked bread can be. Soft and pillow. Hot and aromatic. The crust well browned and crisp, crackling as you tear off a piece. The crumb is elastic and tender, very flavorful and well salted.

It's akin to a Neapolitan pizza dough that was baked slower. The crumb is like a baggaute but slightly denser and less chewy, perhaps slightly enriched with oil.

Actually, it's a lot like a crisp version of a good fluffy pita bread (in the Egyptian/Yamini style). Now I have to buy me some good pita (my favorite bakery is also quite a hole in the wall, but they use a mechanized conveyor oven).

 

As I mentioned before, we kept some leftover pkhali from dinner. They were great with the bread.

We only managed to eat a little more than half  Where's my second stomach when I need it?

Edited October 7, 2018 by shain (log)

[shain]

Some travel photos.

 

 

Edited October 9, 2018 by shain (log)

[shain]

Late lunch.

 

Tarragon "lemonade" - Georgian use the term lemonade to refer to various flavored sodas (popular flavors are pear, orange, grapes, tarragon, vanilla and a few others). It was fizzy and sweet, but not overly so. Very slightly acidic, mostly gently minty, and hints of tarragon which I might have missed had it was not written on the label.

Kazbegi porter - this was a very decent and basic porter. A tad too light and sweet. I hoped to taste other beers by the brewery, but apparently it is not commonly sold  

Adjarian khachapuri - nice and tender, slightly crisp, steaming hot. The egg fully liquid. The dough tastes lightly of yogurt. The filling is melting, not stretchy. Lightly salty. Some tartness and taste of lactic fermentation. We enjoyed it very much.

Lobio - similar preparation to last time. The beans softer, breaking easily. Less herbal and complex than last time, some flavor of bay leaf. It worked well with the lobiani. We occasionally placed from the bean stew on the pieces of the cheesy khachapuri. The beans balanced it's milikness and acidity. It's richness complimented the beans. I hope I haven't performed a crime against Georgian cuisine. Just imagine what an Italian would say if one was to dip Neapolitan pizza into pasta e fagioli 😲.

 

 

Edited October 9, 2018 by shain (log)

[ElsieD]

@shain  when you say the egg was fully liquid, do you mean raw?

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, shain said:

Adjarian khachapuri - nice and tender, slightly crisp, steaming hot. The egg fully liquid. The dough tastes lightly of yogurt. The filling is melting, not stretchy. Lightly salty. Some tartness and taste of lactic fermentation. We enjoyed it very much.

That is the Georgian bread that I dream of!      Perhaps one day I will attempt again.

[shain]

2 hours ago, ElsieD said:

@shain  when you say the egg was fully liquid, do you mean raw?

 

Almost, I believe the egg is cracked raw on the khachapuri as it goes out of the oven. By the short time it took it to be served and photographed, it cooked enough to thicken a little, the egg white was just starting to set. The egg is traditionally mixed into the cheese (or so I understood), but we couldn't resist dipping the two bready knobs into the yolk. The white we mixed into the cheese.

 

It's nice how you dip into the cheese pieces from the vessel in which it's contained.

 

52 minutes ago, Anna N said:

That is the Georgian bread that I dream of!      Perhaps one day I will attempt again.

 

I'm sure going to, once the weather here chills enough for ovens and hearty, cheesy food.

Do you have insights to share from your previous attempt at it?

I barely skimmed through a couple of recpies, but my impression is that the dough is very pizza/pita like, enriched with yogurt. Lacking the proper georgian imeruli and sulguni, I plan on using a mixture of sirene, fresh mozz and some greek yogurt for flavor.

Edited October 9, 2018 by shain (log)

[kayb]

What gorgeous scenery. Are those the Caucusus Mountains? My grasp of that area's geography is sketchy at best.

[shain]

6 minutes ago, kayb said:

What gorgeous scenery. Are those the Caucusus Mountains? My grasp of that area's geography is sketchy at best.

 

Indeed. The pictures are taken at Gergeti church, Tsdu and Gveleti waterfall.

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, shain said:

Do you have insights to share from your previous attempt at it?

I do not have any insights to share. It was a long time ago and my memory of it is just that it was a failure.  I do not even recall where the recipe came from and a search of my devices does not help in that respect.  Will be anxiously watching for your attempt and wishing you success.