Georgian national cuisine is notable for an abundance of all possible kinds of meat, fish and vegetable hors d’oeuvres, various sorts of cheese, pickles and pungent seasonings, the only ones of their kind.

A guest invited to the Georgian table is first of all offered to eat the golden-brown khachapuri which is a thin pie filled with mildly salted cheese; then he is asked to try lobio  (kidney bean) (ripened of fresh green beans) which nearly in every family is cooked according to its own recipes; stewed chicken in a garlic sauce; small river fish “tsotskhali” cooked when it is still still alive; sheat-fish in vinegar with finely chopped fennel; lori, a sort of ham; muzhuzhi, boiled and soaked in vinegar pig’s legs; cheese “sulguni” roasted in butter, pickled aubergines and green tomatoes which are filled with the walnut paste seasoned with vinegar, pomegranate grains and aromatic herbs; the vegetable dish “pkhali” made of finely chopped beet leaves or of spinach mixed with the walnut paste, pomegranate grains and various spices. In East Georgia you will be offered wheaten bread baked on the walls of “tone”, which is a large cylinder-like clay oven, resembling a jar, while in West Georgia you will be treated to hot maize scones (mchadi) baked on clay frying-pans “ketsi”. Admirers of khinkali, a sort of strongly peppered mutton dumplings, a favorite dish with the mountain dwellers of Georgia-keep growing in number. Like everywhere in the Caucasus, mtsvadi (barbeque) is very popular in Georgia. Depending on a season, it is made of pork, mutton or beef.

The splendor of Georgia cuisine is backed up by famous white and red dry wines, among which anyone choose wine to one’s own taste: “Mukhuzani” with a pleasant bitter taste, golden cool “Tetra” light straw-coloured “Tsinandali” with a crystal sourish touch, dark amber-coloured slightly astrigent “Teliani”, rubycoloured “Ojaleshi” with a mildly sweet, emerald-like sparkling “Manavi”, garnet-red honey-tasting “Kindzmarauli”, and dark ruby-coloured velvety “Khvanchkara”, light-green “Gurjaani” dark golden fruity “Tibaani” and many others. If to Georgian wines you add best-brand cognacs, champagne, not to mention remarkable mineral waters and fruit drinks, you can fancy what pleasure Georgian cuisine will to you.