A homage to one of the most fascinating food countries I’ve ever visited
I thought I knew what I was getting into when I visited Georgia (the country not the state) for a six-week stint. Turns out, I knew nothing.
Within two hours of landing, I was, of course, eating.
A Georgian salad made from tomatoes, cucumber, walnuts, coriander and two ingredients I had never heard of. Pickled jonjoli (bladdernut) and Kakhetian sunflower oil.
It was the oil that did it for me. Nutty, toasty, I became obsessed with buying it. I searched high and low around the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, scouring as many supermarkets and food stores as I could. I didn’t find a single bottle.
Once my old friend — a Brit turned five-year Georgian resident — learned of my quest, he laughed at me. It’s not easy to find that oil in the stores here, Charlie, he told me. You might find someone selling it on the roadside, but it’s better to visit Kakheti and buy it from the source.
This oil is a staple in this part of Georgia, yet my friend was right. The only place I found it was in a market in Telavi, the capital of Kakheti. The old seller had decanted his homemade oil into…