Georgian Trip Blog - Sept.-Dec. 2007

Tuesday, October 2, 2007
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, the Sameba Church in the Alaverdi District	Every morning when I awaken, I see the beautiful icons that the boys have put on their bedroom walls. Boriko takes them to the Georgian Orthodox Church every Sunday. Tanya says that of course during the Soviet times, when her boys were growing up, they didn’t go to church. But now there is a great resurgence of interest and observation of religion. Some of the most beautiful new buildings in Georgia are churches. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each day Tanya and I do some work on our books. In this blog I describe the places that we go and the things that we do—but please don’t think that we don’t work, too! It’s just that what we do when we’re finished working for the day is much more interesting for you to read about than the work itself.
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This past Sunday afternoon Tornike and Giorgi invited me out for khinkali. Khinkali are delicious meat dumplings, traditionally sprinkled with pepper and downed with beer. You are expected to eat them with your fingers, and since the dumplings are filled with hot juice as well as meat, eating them is quite a project.	Mtsvadi ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As we were getting ready to go, Bakuri and his family came by, and they thought that going to a khinkali restaurant would be a great idea for them, too. So we all went.	Khinkali
We went to a new restaurant downtown by the river, and the place was packed. It’s a big restaurant with seating inside and outside, and it is set up like a traditional Georgian hunting lodge. There are trophy heads and skins on the wall, and traditional Georgian implements cover the shelves. Bakuri ordered not only khinkali for us, but also kabobi (sausages in thin bread rolls served with tomato sauce) and goat mtsvadi (meat cooked over charcoal and served with raw onion). Everyone had beer (well, even I had a little) and the boys had pineapple and grape limonati. It was a wonderful meal. Even though I have made khingali for Iosif a few times, it’s been sixteen years since I’ve tasted kababi, and I don’t think I’ve ever had goat meat. It was delicious; I had thought that it might have a strong taste, but it didn’t at all. I did have seconds…..	Tornike enjoys khinkali while Dato has kabobi. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More Khinkali