Khachapuri (Хачапури) is one of the most beloved of the Georgian foods adopted into the Russian tradition. That is a major achievement, as Georgian cuisine is itself one of the most beloved of all those among the former Soviet peoples. It is enjoyed in Russia, throughout the former Soviet space, and around the world. The […]

Pkhali (пхали in Russian; ფხალიin in Georgian), made from finely chopped and cooked vegetables mixed with spicy walnut sauce, is one of the most popular traditional Georgian dishes. It is usually garnished with pomegranate seeds and sometimes served alongside eggplant rolls that also feature spicy walnut filling. Almost any vegetable can be used to make […]

The following is an excerpt from “Лобио, сациви, хачапури, или Грузия со вкусом“ (Lobio, Satsivi, Khatchapuri, or Georgia with Taste) by Tinatin Mzhavanadze, a best-selling cookbook author in Georgia. It has been translated and adapted by Dr. Michael Denner of Stetson University in Florida. History and Preparation of Lobio Dr. Michael Denner: Lobio (ლობიო, лобио) means […]

Russia and Eurasia offer what can seem to be a bewildering selection of dairy products in their transnational food cultures. An area of special note, and often one of the strangest to Westerners, is the seemingly never-ending assortment of fermented milk drinks in the Russian gastronomic repertoire. To cut down on the brow-furrowing and sometimes […]

Adzhika (Аджика) is a spicy sauce. It is sometimes a thick red or green paste and sometimes more of a salsa or ketchup-like substance. Generally, thicker versions will be hotter and often considered more authentic. Adzhika is an aromatic and spicy sauce native to the Caucasus that is popular throughout Russia and the former USSR. […]

Dr. Michael Denner: It would be difficult to imagine Georgia without maize, what Americans call corn, though of course corn came from South America, and could only have been introduced to Georgia after Columbus brought it back from the New World… so in the sixteenth century at the earliest. Mchadi and Corn In Georgia My […]

Dr. Michael Denner: You can tell a lot about a cuisine and culture by the way they eat their milk… That’s the point I tried to make in our latest Georgian Cooking Club meeting, waving about a gallon of milk, sheathed in its translucent plastic carapace. My students were confused at first… Georgian Milk Milk. […]

Dr. Michael Denner (notes from the American Test Kitchen): Georgians jokingly refer to tkemali (more accurately written t’q’emali) as “Georgian ketchup.” It gets poured on practically everything. I don’t know of another sauce like it: sour, fruity, salty, with a serious herbal punch and a bit of lingering heat. Maybe it looks like Mexican salsa […]

Dr. Michael Denner: For a lot of Georgians, satsivi is… the essence of Georgian home cooking. It is intensely nostalgic, served as the main dish for celebrating the new year, at home, with friends and family gathered around the banquet table, the supra. SRAS: Dr. Michael Denner is a professor at Stetson’s Program in Russian, East […]