According to Wikipedia, there are at least 16 distinct cuisines in the far distant nation of Georgia, from regions with names like Abkhazia, Kakheti and Guria. But for me, a hungry simpleton, the cooking (at least at the tiny Saqartvelo), all comes down to the one dish found at every table — one of the five khachapuri bread dishes, which like the lahmajun of Armenian cooking, are a lesson in the wonderful things that can be done with dough, butter, cheese and eggs.
To go to Saqartvelo without ordering a khachapuri is a bit like going to a dim sum house and passing on the dumplings. It misses the point.
Situated in the South Caucasus, on the fabled Silk Road, Georgia was gifted with a multitude of dishes and cooking techniques by those passing through, to and from the Middle East, Asia and Europe. But despite that varied influence, there’s a singular consistency in the many regional cuisines — a bread cooked in an oven called a tone, filled with cheese and butter, and both eggs that bake in the oven, and eggs that are hard-cooked, along with beet leaves, potato, cottage cheese, kidney beans, beef and pork.
Sometimes the khachapuri are round like pizzas. Sometimes they’re square. Sometimes they’re a crescent. And in the case of the most popular khachapuri at Saqartvelo, they look a bit like a human eye — or perhaps a pan with handles on both sides, called an Adjaruli khachapuri, from the region of Adjara, which is in the southwest, on the shores of the Black Sea.
It’s partly cooked in the open kitchen by a pair of women wearing scarves on their heads, and then finished at the counter where an egg is dropped into the molten cheese to cook on its way to the tables. It’s served very hot. It’s a pizza on steroids.
Once you’ve tasted the Adjuruli teardrop, there’s the Imeruli round pie, the Guruli dumpling crescent, a mini round khachapuri, and the pita-like lobiani filled with beans and onions. And after you have your bread order, the hot dishes — some small, some large — demand attention. While one can live on khachapuri alone, a plate of khinkali makes the meal that much better.
Khinkali increases my sense that there was more than silk moving along the Silk Road. The two types would fit very well at any of the dumpling houses of the San Gabriel Valley. There’s khinkali kalakuri, which are steamed with rippled edges, and filled with minced meat, onions, garlic and pepper. Khinkali also comes fried, round and brown and looking a lot like macaroons.
There’s a Georgian kebab — a long, spiced meat that’s a close cousin to kefta, served in a slab of pita with onions and tomatoes. If they played baseball in Georgia, this would be their hot dog.
There’s more: Chakapuli is a stew of beef, wine and a sauce made with three types of plums called tkemali. Shkmeruli is roast chicken in a sour cream sauce. And chashushuli is beef, onion peppers and walnuts. Which connects with another section of the menu, headed “Walnut-based dishes.”
Now, it may seem a tad odd to have a menu section headed “Walnut-based dishes.” But then, the relationship with walnuts in the Caucasus goes back centuries, even millennia. There’s fossil evidence that suggests Neanderthal humans were consuming walnuts long before recorded history began. They’ve been described as the oldest cultivated food in the Caucasus. And they’ve long been considered to be sacred — a gift from God.
As you might expect, that gift has become an essential ingredient in Georgian cooking — and in dishes with names like pkhali where walnuts are ground with water and turned into a thick paste to flavor chicken with pomegranate. And bazhe where the walnuts are mixed with chicken broth, onions and garlic.
More Merrill: Breakfast and lunch are tasty experiences at Joe’s Café in Granada Hills
At Saqartvelo, ground walnuts also are used to flavor eggplant, spinach and beetroot. You’ll find them in a salad of tomatoes and cucumbers as well.
The salad is also flavored with Svanetian salt, which is salt and so much more. Salt is mixed with garlic, coriander seeds, blue fenugreek seeds, dill seeds, red chili peppers, marigold and caraway seeds. It’s also used on the fried potatoes. To call Svanetian’s salt “salt” is like calling your Thanksgiving turkey “a bird.” It’s like calling the topping on an Everything Bagel “seasoning.” Again, this is salt and so much more.
It’s also like calling Saqartvelo Georgian Cuisine a mini-mall restaurant. It’s in a mini-mall. But it’s a journey to a land that to me is more myth than real.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
Saqartvelo Georgian Cuisine
- Rating: 3 stars
- Address: 15317 Vanowen St., Van Nuys
- Information: 747-208-8043
- Cuisine: They prepare khachapuri at the counter, have big pots of chikhirtma and chakhokhbili on the stove, and khinkali both boiled and fried. There’s also a menu section of “walnut-based dishes.” The food is a rare find in SoCal — served to a small room of diners who know their tkemali from their ajika. And appreciate having Svanetian salt for the fried potatoes.
- When: Lunch and dinner, every day
- Details: Tea, coffee and exotic soft drinks; reservations helpful for family tables
- Prices: About $25 per person
- On the menu: 8 Hot Dishes ($3-$18.70), 4 Vegetables ($8.75-$14.70), 3 Walnut-based Dishes ($13.70-$15.50), 5 Dough Based Dishes ($11.70-$24.75), 2 Soups ($11-$12.75), 1 Salad ($8.75), 1 Side Dish ($8.50), 3 Sauces ($3.50-$4.75)
- Credit cards: MC, V
- What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.)