food

Georgian food was widely considered to be the best in the Soviet Union. When my father used to organise tours of the USSR for Westerners, he always made sure that Georgia was included as the last stop on the tour, so the foreigners would leave with the impression of the Soviet Union as a place with friendly people and excessive quantities of good food. Part of the reason there is so much here is that everything grows. Georgia has several climate zones (sea coast, valley, mountains) and good weather most of the year. Thus, I kept meeting people who insisted I try the fruit from their grandmother’s garden or the wine made by their father etc. there are so many livestock animals that you see them wandering all over the place in the countryside. As country’s go, Georgia could not be better off in terms of its ability to feed itself.

But eating in Georgia is a particular affair. I got invited to a Supra, which literally means tablecloth, but the meaning it carries is closer to “mass feast,” and the seemingly endless rituals that go with it. Everyone who lived in the ex-USSR knows that Georgians are famous for their toasts, poetic affairs that seem to last up to 30 minutes. But, during this trip I have become acquainted with some extra details of the toasting procedure I did not know of. For example, it is a grave insult to toast with beer- you do this only to your enemies. If you like a person, you must toast with wine or spirits, nothing else. If the gathering is big, then someone (normally the oldest and wisest man) is appointed Tamada, or toastmaster. The tamada is basically the table dictator. Only he is allowed to make the toasts (unless he specifically gives permission to someone else) and you are only allowed to drink right after he has said his toast (ie, you cant drink whenever you feel like it). If the occasion is really big, then there is a alaverdi, who is like a second back up tamada, who makes sure everyone at the end of the table heard every thing correctly. In order to survive the onslaught of wine and chacha, you must eat enough to coat your stomach. But this requires careful pacing as the food arrives in huge quantities from the beginning…but then it keeps coming! So you must pace yourself carefully to avoid overeating in the first round, as more dishes continue arriving and it is something of a sin not to try ALL of them…..