Georgia: Wine, dumplings, cheese bread, mountains and polyphonic singing, I think I’m in love
Sometimes the omnigooglisation of the world throws up anomalies. A search for Georgian food, Georgian music or Georgia itself is most likely to bring up the US State of Georgia where zombies roam free, everything is peach-flavoured and you can be killed for drinking Pepsi. And perhaps this is why the country remains so under the radar despite having views, food, music, wine and films to die for. But although our Western radars may be broken, whenever I’ve been to Russia or Eastern Europe, I’ve found that Georgian restaurants are as prevalent as Indian restaurants are in Birmingham (well maybe not quite). But as there is not a single Brum Georgian restaurant, I had to turn my hand to these recipes myself.
I start by apologising for not veganising. I just couldn’t work out how to make a vegan khachapuri, a freshly made bread filled with cheese and egg, though the side dishes, from Georgian Table, were deliciously vegan — green beans with peppers and roasted tomatoes and a potato salad. I took the plunge and cooked all three for the first time for a dinner party for eight and, unless the guests were lying, it was a success, even if I did burn the bread. We paired the food with an orange Georgian wine — the best orange wine I have ever drunk — and so all would be right for the world, if it wasn’t for the fact that I am still left for a hankering for khinkali Georgian dumplings.
Indeed khinkali are so important to the Georgian mindset that they appear as the backdrop to the first of my musical treats, a video of some polyphonic singing taking place in a dumpling bar in a small town, near one of the world’s most dangerous roads. I know this fact as one of my friends was so taken by this video he made an epic adventure from Belgium to Georgia to try to find the singers! I didn’t go quite that far, but I have made a Georgian playlist which was a strangely maudlin background to the dinner party. But I guess I’d write sad songs if 20 per cent of my homeland was currently occupied by Russia.
Indeed the threat of Russian invasion seems to hang heavy on the Georgian psyche, so much so that the backdrop to this week’s novel Abidas by Zaza Burchuladze is the Russian invasion of the capital Tbilisi, which no-one can actually believe, but which is certainly happening… not that they let it disturb their day to day life. The title Abidas refers to knock-off Adidas and I am tempted to say that the novel is like a Chlares Bklowski imitation. Despite my cynicism though and the fact that there were parts of the action I just couldn’t follow, you could say that this is the point of the book — Georgians are wrapped up in imitating the lifestyle of the West whilst Russia bears down with its angry artillery. It certainly felt like an apt time to be reading it.
Having loved the food, the wine and the music, I feared I would be let down by the films, but I was wrong! The first was the Loneliest Planet, about a couple backpacking across Georgia. It captures the promise and the threat of heading out across the world without the necessary languages or understanding of culture, and projects what I presume is the true beauty of the undulating landscapes. If you, like me, love a slow film, then this will be the one for you. I mean who wouldn’t want to spend two hours watching Gael García Bernal (who also appeared in both our Bolivian films) striding up a hill with a heavy bag on his back?
Our second film was And then we danced, which shows that not only do Georgians have exquisite music, they also have dance to go with it. But to be a top Georgian dancer you have to train hard, hard like the woman in Flashdance, the people in Dirty Dancing, and the Billy Elliot in Billy Elliot. What stops this from being just another “dancers’ lives are hard” film is the love story that underpins it. The main dancer loves his girlfriend but is in love with a man. I shan’t give you spoilers as I’m sure you’ll end up watching it, but I am still not sure what is meant by the phrase “dance like a man.”
So that just about wraps it up, next week we are off to Germany, so I am off to buy some lederhosen.
