A New Year’s Feast in Georgia

Everyone loves New Year, a celebration that carries the weight of so many hopes and expectations that in every country it is surrounded by special traditions, and Georgia is no exception.

It is generally acknowledged that New Year feasts go beyond the boundaries of good health, as the whole population groans and says, ‘this really cannot go on’. And every year, resolutions are made that this time it will be different, that everyone will cook modern, European food, with simply a first course followed by salad, pudding, a champagne cup and no more. They will go to the salon to beautify themselves, take a bath, have a massage, go dancing in

a restaurant or take a trip abroad. And yet, inevitably, December comes round again and with gloomy determination the entire country starts to buy food and order deliveries, for piglets, genuine Racha ham, cheese, wine, nuts, fruit and every imaginable pie and cake to put on the table.

Yet this riotous abundance, reminiscent of a barbarian feast, curiously warms the soul. It makes us happy and unites people in the firm and stubborn triumph of light over darkness. So let us take a closer look at what Georgian people cook for their traditional New Year’s feast.

To begin with we need to note that every corner of Georgia has its own specialties, conventions and gastronomic preferences, and if you want to examine each of them separately we would need to write a weighty book.

A traditional and symbolic treat that is only served at New Year, representing happiness, wealth, luck and a sweet life, is gozinaki, or nuts cooked in honey. This is always made ahead of time. Walnuts, the lightest, largest and oiliest, should be cut into small and approximately equal pieces. Next, honey is melted in a frying pan on a slow fire, you can use any honey you prefer but it should be light and natural, then add nuts and stir until it thickens. Then dampen a wooden board with water and pour the hot mixture onto it and spread evenly with a rolling pin, also dampened with cold water, and when the caramel cools down a little,

cut it carefully into diamond-shaped pieces. These are beautifully arranged on plates and offered around the family and to visitors, especially children. These delightful treats are so strongly associated with the New Year that the first whiff of them brings on a holiday feeling.

Sun symbols also have to be present on the table. These are our famous khachapuri, which are different everywhere: Imeretian, Mingrelian, Adjarian and particularly the Gurian, which are usually eaten at Christmas. They are shaped like a horseshoe and filled with cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and a coin for happiness. The one who gets the coin will be successful in the coming year.

Finally, we are getting closer to the meat. As a general rule, villagers would slaughter a pig for Christmas and New Year, for roast and boiled ham, pork kebabs, fried sausages, kaurma from the entrails and cleaned trotters for khashi, the morning hangover soup. In the city the preference is usually for a whole roasted suckling pig, gleaming scarlet with a crunchy skin, very tender

meat and the indispensable radish in the mouth. It is served with rubyred tkemali sauce, sweet and sour, made up half of plums and half of blackthorn.

There is another essential requirement, which is poultry, usually fulfilled with a well-fed turkey accompanied by a walnut satsivi sauce. This is quite a complicated dish, cooked skillfully by experienced housewives. The dish originated in Mingrelia and it is served with hot cornmeal porridge, or gomi. This is topped with slices of melted sulguni cheese, a national specialty that we are very proud of. If you can’t find a turkey, then a large chicken will be just as delicious with the rich and spicy walnut sauce.

It is impossible to imagine a Georgian meal without our green vegetables. We love fresh tender greens, laid whole in a dish, which I think makes perfect sense as cut salads spoil so fast, they fade and oxidise, while whole greens keep their properties: green onions, silky wormwood, leeks, parsley and cress. Vegetables are presented fresh, as in the essential salads of tomato and cucumber, or marinated, stewed, pickled or fried, with seasonings and walnut sauces.

For the fish menu we prefer sturgeon cooked whole and cut into generous, large flat slices. It is served with pomegranate sauce called

narsharab, which is dark, viscous, sweet and sour. Following Soviet tradition, we still serve caviar on special plates alongside artistically cut butter.

A separate chapter should be written about the wines, made by men in the summer, many of whom have their own vineyards and cellars (marani) press their own grapes and make their own wine. Each corner of the country has its favourite type. Red wine is good for drinking with meals, while a green, white or rich amber wine is popular at feasts and get-togethers, when it is served in small glasses and used to make toasts.

You can put any beverage on the table, but wine has a special ritual meaning. When you hold it in your hand it is as though you are holding a thread of eternal tradition, blessing life and your loved ones.

The culmination of the feast is, as usual, sweets. But there are some nuances here because Georgian cuisine does not traditionally include many puddings, so now we usually cook not only our pelamushis and churchelas, but also regular European cakes. These are a remnant of the old Soviet days, when the entire country adopted the fashion for honey cakes as well as ‘Praga’, ‘Senators’ and ‘Ptichye Moloko’ (Bird’s Milk) cakes. Now of course there are new puddings in fashion, such as tiramisu and cheesecake, but on this front every family has its own favourite. And finally, I must mention the unique tradition that

involves the first guest to enter the house at New Year.

We all associate the New Year with kindness and generosity. It draws an invisible line between old and new, darkness and light, and this is why people search out the very best company for this special moment. At midnight everyone greets the cherished New Year at home with their family, and afterwards they start visiting their relatives, which is a kind of ritual to strengthen family ties. But it matters who enters the house first, and this person is selected beforehand. He is, as a rule, a man, a good, respected and loved person, both lucky and happy. If the last year was a good one then everyone remembers who was the mekvle, or first visitor, as he was the one who paved the way.

If a person visits a house for the first time in Georgia, they will say, “let my foot be happy in your house”, which means ‘may I bring happiness’. It is a superstition that has taken root and is now used everywhere, not only during New Year. Despite our cynicism, the human soul needs to believe in miracles, and when is a better time to believe in them than at New Year? Let it bring light and happiness to every family and let us celebrate with all the best traditions.