Georgian Foods I Love:

For those of you who are interested, here is the food post, as promised!

1. Lobio ლობიო: Just means “beans,” but the dish is a delicious combination of all kinds of beans, onions, and spices that is delicious on bread, especially with pickles and cheese.
2. Lobiani ლობიანი – a giant, flat croissant filled with with lobio, mmmmm.
3. Khachapurri ხაჩაპური – Round, flat bread filled with a very salty Georgian cheese (maybe the best thing I’ve eaten EVER)
4. Pelamushi ფელამუში– The Georgian take on Jello – made from mashed grapes and some kind of cereal into a paste that stiffens to jello-jiggler likeness, albeit lilac-colored and opaque. Topped with crushed walnuts, omg yum…
5. Churchkhella ჭურჩხელა(sp?) – Nuts (hazelnuts or walnuts usually) on a string, dipped in the pelamushi fruit paste and then dried to fruit-leather consistency. It looks like a bumpy candle, but is actually a giant fruit-snack with nuts in the middle.
6. Khenkali ხენკალი --- A boiled dumpling the size of your fist with a doughy stem so that you can eat it with your hands. Filled with meat and spices, which create a delicious broth inside the dumpling that you are supposed to drink before it spills onto your plate. Cover them in pepper, and leave the ends on your plate to keep count of how many you’ve managed to eat. It usually turns into a contest --- my record is eight.
7. Nadughi ნადუღი --- I’m not positive on what this is in English, but I think it might be “whey,” like, from the Little Miss Muffet rhyme where she eats her curds and whey. When my host grandmother makes cheese, I think this I the leftover deliciousness that I put on bread and eat with my morning tea.
8. Quince Kompot --- What on earth is a quince? I have no idea, but it’s delicious and my host mom makes fruit-juice out of it with whole quinces in the bottom of your mug to eat as you please.