Noshing in Asia

December 7, 2017 7:37 PM

Take your husband and child across China and Mongolia in a small RV (one of six available to rent). Really fun article on what it's like to encounter Mongolians when traveling in your RV. They're friendly people and invite the travelers into their yurts to sample their traditional foods. Next is an introduction to the foods of Georgia 10 Georgian Dishes And now I'm hungry.
posted by MovableBookLady (8 comments total)

The Mongolia article was delightful, and I'm excited to try to make chive flower paste next summer! But any article on Georgian food that extols the use of walnuts up front and then omits a recipe for badrijani nigvzit is incomplete.
posted by All hands bury the dead at 8:42 PM on December 7, 2017 [4 favorites]

Georgian cuisine is wonderful and should be a lot better known than it is. That said, it's probably for the best that I can't readily get my hands on khachapuri.

Mongolian cuisine is... Interesting.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 9:10 PM on December 7, 2017 [2 favorites]

I miss Georgian food so much sometimes. Getting of the over crowded marshutka right in front of a store front bakery to get khachapuri and a bottle of tarragon soda. Also, if the khinkali house they talk about is the same one I remember it was a massive, deafeningly loud room with giant banquets, dancing and lots of wine. I think. For some reason the memories are fuzzy.

Georgia was also where I first experienced seasonality in food for real. Ripe tomatoes and eggplant when I first arrived and parsley on the table at every meal. Winter meant cabbage, potatoes and pickled green tomatoes. When spring came back I tried more varieties of cherries than I ever new existed.
posted by nestor_makhno at 9:45 PM on December 7, 2017 [5 favorites]

You weren't kidding about the Georgian food article making you hungry! That stuff looks delicious.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:39 PM on December 7, 2017

Dang it. The best I can find locally is a 1993 review of a restaurant that closed in 1998, and sounds mouthwatering. Time travel please.
posted by away for regrooving at 11:58 PM on December 7, 2017

(Has anyone written a story about an eater who uses time travel to enjoy the greatest food across history? I would read MFK Fisher doing that.)
posted by away for regrooving at 12:00 AM on December 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

I loved that Georgian article, and I wish to goodness I still had a job that paid for me to travel there. I haven't found any nearby Georgian restaurants to get my khinkali or khachapuri fix, but I have at least found a local liquor store that carries saperavi, so all is not lost.

I was never greeted with a bottle of wine at Customs, though. Guess I should have picked a different line.
posted by solotoro at 7:55 AM on December 8, 2017

My son's caregivers when he was in an at-home daycare were all Georgians and he was fed wonderful Georgian food between 6 months and 2 years old. He also picked up some Georgian which he has now completely forgotten (except for chamahoutra (sp?) which means something like "can I have a hug?"). I treat Georgian food as something for a special occasion because I lack restraint and overindulge so much that I need to be rolled out of the restaurant. I am grateful to live in a city that has Georgian restaurants and also grateful that they are not in my Seamless radius.
posted by Falconetti at 10:30 AM on December 8, 2017 [1 favorite]