04Experiences

The Georgian table

Khachapuri, khinkali and churchkhela

Khachapuri is Georgia's national dish: leavened bread filled with cheese and sometimes egg. The most common version is Imeretian, stuffed with salty white Imeretian cheese, while the Adjarian one from Adjara is shaped like a boat and filled with cheese, butter and an egg yolk. It matters so much that its price is used to compare inflation between cities, and it has its own national day on 27 February. Khinkali are twisted knots of dough filled with minced meat, onion and spices, or with cheese, potato or mushrooms. The meat goes in raw, so its juices collect inside as it cooks: bite, sip the broth first, then leave the tough knot on your plate, where it helps everyone count how many they have eaten. For dessert there is churchkhela, walnuts or hazelnuts threaded on a string, dipped in thickened grape juice and hung to dry into candle shapes. At a feast, the supra, a toastmaster called the tamada leads the toasts.

0 February

National Khachapuri Day