Best Bites 2024

There’s no denying 2024 has been a year of political discontent that has permeated into all aspects of life in Tbilisi – including the culinary. Massive protests against the incumbent Georgian Dream party started in spring when it pushed forward a controversial law that many saw as emulating a Russian one and pushing the country towards Moscow-style autocracy. Even bigger protests broke out more recently when the ruling party announced they are suspending Georgia’s efforts to join the European Union, further fueling fears about the country’s orientation. For the CB crew, the political turbulence made this year one to revisit small backstreet joints that have withstood the test of time, such as Old Time Pub, the watering hole serving sausages and beer from Soviet times, and the pelmeni stronghold of Dumplings N1 that’s been serving some of the city’s best Slavic dumplings for over a decade.

Dumplings N1

Khinkali is king in Georgia, but another dumpling of foreign origins has also woven its way into the childhood flashbacks reminiscent of Proust’s madeleines (the French writer’s analogy that morphed into a famous metaphor for nostalgia) of many a Georgian. Pelmeni is presumably Russian in origin, but can be found across the Slavic world and Eastern Europe. These bite-sized dumplings are typically stuffed with a mixture of beef and pork, freeze well due to their tiny size, and rarely break when boiled, making them the quick meal of choice for busy moms with hungry kids. Hence the many childhood memories attached to this dish – one which remains a popular comfort food long into adulthood.

Old Time Pub

Sausages and beer might not sound much like a Tbilisi affair, but this most Bavarian of combinations is what has been served up steadily for more than five decades in one of the city’s oldest watering holes. Nodar Vardiashvili and his shop have survived the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as the tumultuous decade of civil war and economic devastation that followed. Through the roiling changes that transformed the wider region and the skyline of Tbilisi as better economic years returned, little changed in the metal-clad, bunker-like establishment in the neighborhood of Nazaladevi that has been slinging sausages and pouring beer (and sweet fizzy lemonades) since 1964.

Miracle Ethiopian Food

When Ethiopian national Mimi Alemu Desta was proposed Georgia as a temporary place of refuge by to help her escape her war-torn country in 2021, she assumed it was the state in the U.S. Little did she imagine she would end up in the South Caucasus republic she didn’t even know existed till then, let alone that she’d be the first person to introduce the spice-and flavor-infused cuisine of her home country to residents of Tbilisi.

Pictograma

For a dish so ubiquitous, one would be forgiven to think there’s little to debate about Georgia’s national dumpling, the khinkali. But just as tastes vary, every Georgian has their own khinkali preferences and opinions. That’s certainly the case for chef Gela Arabuli, who believes khinkali has been gentrified and mass produced to a point where most people have forgotten the dumplings’ origins in the mountains and how they should really taste. “Real khinkali is from the high mountains. And there are no pigs in the mountains,” insists Gela, referring to the most popular and common filling of minced beef and pork in equal parts as kalakuri, or “city style,” khinkali.

Recipe: Chakapuli, the Verdant (and Tart) Pearl of Georgian Stews

There’s no dish that signals in the arrival of spring and early summer in Georgia like the verdant tangy lamb stew called chakapuli. The spring dish, originally from the country’s wine growing eastern region of Kakheti, makes its seasonal debut at Orthodox Easter (or Paska) feasts that usually falls around mid-April. After a long, solemn period of reflection and penance when all meat (except the permissible fish) and pleasure are eschewed by the faithful, joyful cries of “Kristi Aghsdga!” or “Christ is Risen!” replaces standard greetings for a day of feasting and celebration. Families and friends (and lucky invited guests) gather around tables laden with all the classic staples of a Georgian supra, but the signature starter dish proffered is soup bowls of lamb (or veal) simmered in a rich white wine-based broth with fresh green tarragon, spring onions, green coriander, fresh young garlic bulbs and sour green plums called tkemali.

Ghebi: Subterranean Comfort

Few locals, let alone tourists have reached the isolated mountain village of Ghebi in Georgia’s northern borderlands of Racha. However, many have passed through the doors of its namesake basement restaurant in the bustling left bank district of Marjanishvili in downtown Tbilisi. For more than a decade, the eatery has been steadily serving up comfort food from the region including lobio, the red bean stew with or without the aged Racha salted ham called lori, bean-stuffed pies called lobiani, and skhmeruli, the garlic saturated pan-roasted chicken dish. Located on Aghmashenebeli Avenue, which is more well known for its profusion of Turkish lokantasi diners with ready-made buffet spreads and Arab restaurants that attract many of the city’s foreign residents and visitors from South Asia and the Middle East, Ghebi remains a staunch local haunt frequented by tables of Georgian men toasting their chachas late into the evening over tables loaded with food.