Delicious Local Cuisine

When you come to Georgia; meals are hearty communal gatherings with foods typically served on sizable shared plates. The cuisine is unapologetically comfortable. Alongside khinkali (hot dumplings filled with meat or potatoes and scalding broth), fresh salads, smoked cheeses, and vegetable dishes like pkhali are spicy stews of lamb, beef, or chicken (crushed aubergine, walnut and garlic paste).

While each region has its own specialties, some meals, like the khachapuri, are commonly found on menus all around the country. This delicacy, which is essentially a flat, bread-like pie filled with molten cheese, comes in a number of regional variations that should all be tasted for research's sake, followed immediately by a nap.

Try a piece of churchkhela to go with your after-dinner coffee for a treat that isn't overly sweet. These vibrant confections may be found hanging at stalls all around Georgia. They are made by dipping a string of walnuts into a grape sauce that resembles caramel and stringing them up to dry.

The good news is that there are restaurants all around the country that serve wonderful Georgian food, but for a flavor that is genuinely authentic, go to Barbarestan in Tbilisi. Their menu was developed using traditional recipes from a 19th-century cookbook. Those things can be seen as one of the Reasons to Visit Georgia.