Our first two Supras

Well where to begin? On Tuesday night we were taken to a dinner by Dado, the Finance Director for the City of Tbilisi. There were six of us: Tim, Marika who is Tim’s assistant, Gigi who works for the National Ministry of Finance, Ron, Dado, our host and me. The occasion was to give Tim a proper send off and to welcome Ron and me. In retrospect I would call it a ‘mini supra’. A Georgian supra is a feast. It is a ritualized event with a tamada, a toast master. Traditional foods are served and there is a very specific order to the toasts and a very specific theme to each toast. No wine is consumed unless there is a toast.

Food

Let me start by saying that Georgian cuisine is fabulous. I had been told that is was by everyone who had been here but I have been astounded by how good it is. When we arrived last night we were the only people at the restaurant. I don’t know if it was a private club or public place but it was quite lovely. The table was set and many dishes were already on the table when we arrived. This is typical of a supra. I will try to recall the food that we were served. There was fish: four kinds of fish served at room temperature on small platter including what looked lox, a white fish which was salty and a couple of other that I didn’t try. There was another platter with two other kinds of small whole fish. In addition there was caviar. There were olives, a green salad with tomatoes and parmesan, a platter with a spinach mold that had hot red peppers with something that bound it together, maybe cheese, eggplant with walnut sauce, there was a cheese platter with four cheeses, a bread basket with four or five kinds o breads, a traditional thin hot bread was served individually that always has hot chewy bubbly cheese that is slightly salty and another bread called cornbread but in no way resembles our cornbread. This was made of corn flour, it was about the size of your palm and quiet dense. It was probably fried with a crispy buttery outside and a soft, creamy inside. Cream cheese wrapped in thinly sliced cheese. Cold cuts. Later came stuffed mushrooms in wine sauce with hot, chewy cheese. Then hot sturgeon with pomegranate sauce, there two kinds of barbeque meats with green plum sauce, fried potatoes. This was topped off with ice cream for those who could handle it and huge platters of fresh fruit: honeydew melon, watermelon, peaches, apples, grapes, pears. Unfortunately I thought everything on the tables was the meal and had no idea that more hot dishes would be served. Live and learn. The key here is to pace yourself and only eat those dishes that interest you the most because you can’t eat some of everything and live to tell about it!

In additional there were four kinds of drinks on the tables: a tarragon soda, a pear soda, still and carbonated mineral water which is called gassed water versus still water. White and red wine were served which is what is used for the toasts.

Dado served as the tamada, the toast master. Toasts have a specific order and are much more elaborate than ours. In this case many of the toasts were educational, giving us history lessons as we went along. Each toast was announced as ‘I would like to propose a toast’. Then Dado would give background information as to the reason for the toast, the subject of the toast and then make the toast. This may take up to five minutes or more. Then all glasses would be clinked and then a few more words before the actual drinking of the wine. No wine is drunk in between the toasts and it is best since there were too many toasts to count. I would not be exaggerating if I said there were twenty or more toasts. Some toasts require draining your glass. Our meal lasted about two or two and half hours. Not our usual meal in the US!  It was a super Supra!

Dado asked if we would like to go up in the hills to get a view of the city. Of course we said yes! Tbilisi is surrounded by hills and mountains. We drove for maybe fifteen minutes up a twisting road and got out to see a spectacular view of the city. We were able to spy various landmarks and regretted not having our camera.

So that was Tuesday and then Wednesday we got invited to yet another celebration to acknowledge Tim’s departure. This was at a restaurant that is noted for a traditional dish called khinkali. This event was attended by Roland who is the manger of the Betsy, Marika and her husband Goba, Leah, another staff person and her husband Sosa, Tim and the two of us. Roland served as tamada. This is a huge restaurant spread over a large area with lots of outdoor seating and many private rooms. Since we are a fairly large group we got a private room which was nice. Usually you would just eat khinkali here but not tonight. We had a tomato and cucumber salad with crushed walnuts, a cheese platter, the hot cheese bread described in the previous meal, eggplant with walnut topping. Then came a platter of long sausages wrapped in thin bread much like the popular wraps in the US, only better tasting. Two kinds of barbeque (pork and beef) with barbeque sauce were also brought to the table. Frankly I can’t remember what else. Later came the khinkali which is a large dumpling filled with meat. The dumpling is a flour wrap similar to a wonton but larger. It is filled with a pork and lamb (?) meat filling and herbs and the flour based wrap is then twisted with many folds. The shape is somewhat like a Hersey’s Kiss but much larger and with multiple folds at the top from the twisting. Apparently there should be 32 folds but whose counting? It is boiled until the meat is done, about twenty minutes. The trick is to eat the dumpling without spilling the juice that has formed inside the dumpling from the meat cooking. It is literally like eating a meat soup in a dough package. I did well and Ron slurped some filling which causes lots of joking. You do not eat the twisted end of the dumpling. People eat four or more of these at a sitting but I could only manage two. Once again they are delicious!

After everyone had eaten their fill, the waitress came in and took the remaining dumplings back to the kitchen where they reheat them by frying them in a skillet so now you have the equivalent of a pot sticker and they are returned to the table for more eating. As much as I wanted to try one there was no room. At this meal, liter sized glasses of beer were consumed as this is supposed to taste best with khinkali. Leah brought a bottle of homemade ‘chacha’ which is a form of vodka made from the remains of grapes after squeezing for wine and is very common here. Most families make their own wine and chacha. Only four people drank the chacha and they drank a liter of it. It was used as the drink for the toasts. Several of the people had two beers (two liters each). Oy! I don’t know how they do it but let me just say I am glad I don’t drink alcohol because I couldn’t keep up and would do a face plant into my meal each time.

Try to imagine eating these two meals on two consecutive nights. Your stomach should be moaning at the sheer volume. I was so thankful that Thursday night was free!