National Cuisine Of The Former USSR #1

My frequent, and perhaps repeatedly voiced thought is that the post—Soviet countries are the most underestimated in their potential. The stunning nature of Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, the beautiful towns of Estonia and Latvia, the ancient culture of Armenia and Uzbekistan, the flavor of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, a wide variety of directors, writers (not only Dostoevsky and Tolstoy!) and the artists of Russia and Ukraine, the kindest people of Belarus and Tajikistan — all this has a legendary status within these countries, but behind them is almost unknown. Therefore, I will slightly open this veil, and tell you about what unites all people — delicious food. Perhaps this is repeatedly written about in well-known magazines, but I will try to tell not only what and how they cook, but also what importance we, the people of the CIS, attach to these dishes.

As usual, I delayed the beginning. Let's go!

Georgia is a country adored by many people of the former USSR, a "health resort", sung by Pushkin and Lermontov, and only one can compete with Georgian cuisine for love and popularity. No Russian, and certainly no other post-Soviet city is a city without a Georgian restaurant.

There is always a huge demand for Georgian cafes, and everyone in Russia has tried khachapuri, khinkali or adjika.

Khachapuri is a very broad concept, bread with cheese, most often smoked suluguni (also very tasty) and eggs, but take a look at what is called one:

By the way, these Megrelian and Adjarian are the most popular types of khachapuri.

Georgia is a patchwork united into a single nation: Megrelians, Imereti, Kakhetians, Tushins, Adjarians, and most of them have their own version of khachapuri. Imeretins have a fairly simple option: bread with cheese inside, but simplicity never hurts, and often even vice versa; Adjarians, as you can see, mix an egg with cheese; Megrelians have a similar to the Imeretian version, but the top of khachapuri is covered with cheese; Gurians have khachapuri a la "calzone" with boiled eggs; Penovani (or Samtskhe-Javakheti khachapuri, do not try to pronounce) these are envelopes with cheese inside.

I tried Megrelian khachapuri, and it was delicious, although, to be honest, it was not prepared by Georgians. I think that the real Georgian khachapuri will be even tastier.

I had an interesting story with Achma. Visiting my aunt (she is a big fan of Georgia) she said that she was preparing khachapuri for us. And what a surprise it was when, instead of the usual bread with cheese, a mess of layers of dough, cheese and greens was served to the table! So one khachapuri and the other khachapuri are very different.

No less, and maybe even more famous is the khinkali dish (after all, khinkalnaya is more common than khachapurnaya).

These are some of the representatives of a large family of dumplings, very popular in the former USSR. But they have their own chips.

They are prepared from beef and pork with a lot of spices, but this is not something special. The main task of the khinkali cook is the form. There must be a tail at the top, and there must be at least 18 folds in khinkali, especially skilled cooks have more than 25-30 folds (they write on the Internet that this is due to the sun, but I'm not sure of the authenticity).

Georgians have their own culture of eating khinkali. They hold them by the tail, bite and drink broth, of which there is a lot in khinkali, and only then they eat the rest. And Georgians do not eat the khinkali tail, but throw it away.

We are simple people, ate khinkali as usual pelmyeni, except Dad (he is also a fan of Georgia). But, I'll talk banal, it's very tasty and I advise everyone to try it.

I have known about kharcho soup since childhood thanks to the expression "what? kharcho soup!"(transliterated: Cho? Sup kharcho!). But now I've learned a little more about this soup.

Kharcho is a spicy soup made from beef, spices (cilantro, garlic, savory), and slightly more original ingredients — walnut (in Russian it will be Greek nut, although actually from Kyrgyzstan) and cherry plum puree (tkmeli, in Azerbaijani and in Russian alycha).

Let me clarify that kharcho, like khachapuri, also varies by region, but, for example, Megrelian or Svan kharcho will not be radically different. Tabaka chicken (Previously, I clearly heard "chicken tobacco", and thought that it was fried in tobacco leaves) it is also a very important dish of Georgian cuisine.

Chicken tabaka is cooked, as Georgians like, with a lot of spices, from estuary to pickles, in a frying pan under pressure (this makes it have such a cheerful flattened shape).

Tabaka chicken has gained popularity and legendary status in the post-Soviet space. Not a single menu of the Soviet catering, sanatorium or boarding house could do without it (and even now it will not do). It was in the sanatorium that my first meeting with this chicken took place.

And Georgia's drinks? Tarhun, lemonade, which is adored by all the older generation from the USSR, or Borjomi, high-quality mineral water from the resort of the same name. You can write about Georgian wines for a long time and devote a separate blog to this, because it's not that every region — every valley and village has its own winemaking traditions, so Georgia is a paradise for wine lovers, big feasts and unique congratulations! The path of Georgian grapes does not end there — chacha, a strong alcoholic drink, is made from grape cake. 
Therefore

The dispute for the title of the homeland of shashlik is long, and for the best cooking shish kebab is eternal. Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Armenians, Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Kazakhs — you will find a lot of rivals in the fight for the chief shashlik maker.

But the main thing about shashlik is how it brings people together. There is no person who does not like to go out into nature and fry shashlik.

Putting a mangal for shashlik and cooking it is the business of men, although women are always mainly engaged in food (apparently, they love shashlik for this).

Shashlik is a long business. I will tell you about the traditions of this business in our family. First, the meat is put in the marinade (in a large family, all the pots go to the meat in the marinade) so that it is soaked.
 In our family, meat in the marinade has been carefully hidden from me since childhood, so that I would not see onions with garlic (I am a big fussy person who does not eat half of the products), but in the end the truth was revealed. 
 Even one marinade will have to wait a lot of time (not like hakarl, of course, but for hungry children a lot).

Well, while the meat is being marinated, the men are already preparing coal and igniting it. Shashlik is prepared strictly on coals. 
 Here children come out to the arena, who need to poke a stick into the burning coals, try to make a fire, or even more fun, try to get a hot coal and go draw on anything. Naturally, no one will tolerate this for a long time, and children are sent to do something else. 

In principle, we should thank the barbecue for its long cooking, because it's always fun to work up an appetite. Families play with each other (and among 14 people there is someone with whom), walk, chat.

Men also like shish kebab for a reason (do you think someone will consider it 3-5 hours of rest just like that?). Since shish kebab is a long and unhurried business, then you can cook it in a relaxed manner and discuss everything urgent.

And here comes the long—awaited moment - shashlik is ready! Everyone is rushing headlong to eat the cherished meat together with its retinue:

As Dad says, "in a big family, you can't click with your beak".

And this is 100% true.

A little simple math: 40 pieces are cooked, there are 14 people in the family. Provided that the grandmother refuses "to let the grandchildren eat", and the younger ones do not finish one piece, you will get 3 pieces. Of course, everyone wants more, so you'll be distracted by a conversation, and you'll be left without food.

But the result is always worth it: from long anticipations, the meat is especially delicious, and it is almost impossible to eat it to the end.

Maybe you didn't learn anything new from this long tirade about shashlik, because it's not a unique cultural phenomenon. This is in many countries, take the same Australian BBQ or South African braai. But it's still impossible to start talking about the CIS cuisine and not say about shashlik, which is so close to us (although I could say "this is BBQ in Russian realities").

I thought to cover the whole kitchen in one block, but after writing about khachapuri, I realized that this is a lost cause (or I'm stretching everything to an outrage). 
Yes, this blog is not a culinary guide, and even it barely pulls on information (you can safely drain the second part into the toilet), because I didn't even climb into Wikipedia once again, it's more like warm memories presented by food from different cuisines. 
In any case, the love for the cuisines of the countries of the former USSR is inextinguishable in the hearts of people, and, I hope, will spread to the whole world.