Culinary history of Georgia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Culinary history of Georgia - Essay Example a Christian nation, Georgia has historically looked more often to the West-so much so that the capital city of Tiflis (Tbilisi) was once known as the Paris of the Caucasus. Lying athwart the major trade routes between East and West, Tiflis maintained a grand caravanserai where merchants could stable their animals, store their wares, and themselves find shelter. Thanks to its agriculture riches and long tradition of hospitality, Georgia was an object of desire for many outsiders, not all of whom were good guests. (â€Å"A Culinary Crossroads† 11) Georgian cuisine is not only influenced by Middle Eastern and European but it also influenced different neighboring and invading nations. According to Plotkin and Gregory, Georgia and Armenia contributed to the Russian cuisine, for instance, chickpeas and pine nuts including dishes such as grilled lamb shashlyk, stuffed grapes leave dolmas and nut pastry, baklava (13). The Georgians date the beginnings of their culture to the sixth century BCE.The ancient Greeks established colonies along the Blank Sea coast in a region they called Colchis.In 66 BCE, when the Roman general Pompey invaded and brought the area under Roman rule, Greek control came to an end, but the outposts in Colchis remained important links in the trade route to Persia†¦By the early Middle Ages Tiflis had become a major stopover on the medieval trade routes, a midpoint between Moslem East and Christian West. (Goldstein â€Å"A Culinary Crossroads† 11) Until nineteenth century, there was no concept of tea in Georgia; it became a major crop in Russian era. It is quite a recent phenomenon as there are no tea consumption traces in history. Georgians prefer Turkish coffee over tea and cups of strong coffee with a glass of cold water are a common sight in cafes (Goldstein â€Å"The Georgian Feast† 6). Tbilisi itself founded in the fifth century when, according to legend, King Vakhtang Gorgaslani, on a hunt near the Kura River, killed a pheasant, which he