Chronicle of a Georgian Journey, or The Story of a Spree with Illustrations and Recipes

Genadij Yozefavichus, a traveler who writes hundreds of articles and thousands of columns, loves to eat and drink, and collects stories—photos—and writes journalism, has written a book that will make you surely fall in love with Georgia and its cuisine. The author and his friends, artists Totibadze and others, eat and drink so passionately and deliciously that you immediately want to join them. First in Moscow. And then, in Georgia itself, where they go on a grand gastronomic journey through the Greater Caucasus. The heroes spend only a week in Georgia, yet they manage to eat and drink for half a lifetime ahead. Mtskheta, Kakheti, Tbilisi, and the surrounding areas, the estates of Georgian princes with their unchanging wine cellars, and the local bohemia’s castles with picture galleries will surely captivate the listener’s imagination. This Georgian revel—thoughtful and humane—necessarily includes barbecues of different kinds, drunken trout, khinkali, pkhali, chikhirtma, and unusual local wines. Also—colorful specialties like cutlets with eggs or matsoni made from buffalo milk. By the way, did you know that besides white and red wine there are also golden and pink? The traveling companions might even climb Kazbegi to taste, in a restaurant at a nearly heavenly hotel, the signature khachapuri and kaurma. And they’ll sing odes to roadside eateries, which in Georgia seem to be able to compete even with restaurants. After all, here they serve the best, proper khinkali with pork and chacha. By the way, recipes for all the most delicious and surprising things (including the famous egg anti-hangover soup) await you at the end of the book—and they’re written in such a way that it’s almost impossible to resist not cooking. Along the way, through descriptions of revels and savoring dishes, the author introduces us to Georgian history and culture—from ancient monasteries to contemporary artists of primitivism. The author knows his way around both real cuisine, and travel, and Russian literature. His flawlessly sparkling style makes you remember the books of Dovlatov, Bitov, and Venichka Erofeyev (especially since the text is full of allusions and reminiscences, starting with the famous “And then he immediately drank”). This book will be interesting to those who miss not only high cuisine, but also high Russian literature. Listening to it is easy and even fun, yet it leaves a deep and pleasant aftertaste. Just like Georgian cuisine.