Sulico

Dishes mentioned

• Tagliere di Formaggi Georgiani

  We got a cheese platter with four types of Georgian cheeses, some sautéed olives, truffle honey, and in the center there's gozinaki — a typical Christmas sweet, a kind of nut brittle made with honey and walnuts. The goat cheese has a texture very similar to our pecorino, with that extra acidity. There's a soft one with a weird texture that packs a powerful flavor punch, like a guda cheese — very tasty, slightly spicy. Then there's a cheese with walnuts that reminds me of semi-aged pecorino with walnuts, probably cow's milk. And a fresh cheese with herbs, also very pecorino-like. But the gozinaki is incredible — as soon as you bite into it you can tell it's made right. It's been so long since I've had something this good, I need to learn how to make it.

• Insalata di Pomodori Dolci

  Our second appetizer is a sweet tomato salad with some peppers, pomegranate, and orange — or lemon, I'll find out. There's also balsamic vinegar, I think. It's a very cheerful salad because it's sweet. I like sweet salads. The lemon gives an extra interesting flavor. The pomegranate, onion, everything goes well together. And there's my friend cilantro — damn it — but also mint. It's a very refreshing salad with that nice acidic note, that sweet-and-sour contrast that works great and invites you to eat it while refreshing you at the same time. With a bit of wine it's even better.

• Mkhlvani

  This is from the Racha region, a region in northern Georgia — one of the most beautiful places with wonderful people. Inside there's cheese, beet leaves, and other herbs. You can see the red from the beet. I've always liked this and I still like it. There's a bit less cheese compared to other khachapuris to make room for the beet and herbs. You could pretend it's healthy because it doesn't seem brushed with butter on top. It's light, healthy, made very well — thin, not bready. This dish makes me dance, so it's something good.

• Dolma

  We got stuffed grape leaves with mixed meat inside, called tolma. Next to it there's a yogurt sauce called kazuruli matsoni with barberry on top, and then sugar with cinnamon. I've never tried it with sugar before. This is made in their own way, without water I think — they put these little rolls in a pot without water, so there's this good flavor I really like. The leaves aren't hard, they chose them well. The grape leaves have this roasted note, not boiled, which makes it much more indulgent. There's no rice inside here. The kazuruli matsoni — matsoni is a kind of yogurt they make here, similar to yogurt but with different bacteria, so the texture and flavor are slightly different. Kazuruli means dried, hung to drain, making it even denser. It balances the saltiness of the roll perfectly with that slightly acidic note from the barberry. And the sugar with cinnamon — I tried it and it completely transforms the dish into something very different and very good. I thought it would be a disaster but it was really interesting.

• Gallette con Burrata, Pomodori Arrostiti e Salsa di Basilico

  This might shock some people. It's a gallette with roasted cherry tomatoes, arugula, basil sauce, and a burrata. Yes, a burrata — a very Italian-style dish. But this burrata is Georgian. Stretched-curd cheeses are big in Georgian gastronomic culture, and there aren't many places in the world that make them besides Italy. Cheeses like sulguni when fresh remind me of a high-quality mozzarella. I'm going to cut this open — beautiful when the burrata explodes like that. This is almost food porn. It's as beautiful as it is complicated to manage. Delicious. There's a hot-cold contrast, fatty, sweet, fresh, incredibly indulgent. If you come here, even if this isn't strictly a Georgian dish, I recommend you get this because it's pleasurable beyond measure. The basil sauce isn't pesto, it's a basil sauce. The tomato is roasted, the burrata is excellent — you eat worse ones in Italy. Top dish. I also taste parmesan somewhere in the gallette dough. The combination of hot and cold is amazing. Visually it's a greedy dish that makes you want to eat it all.