Ormotsi = a celebration of life 40 days after the death of a person inGeorgia.

Ormotsi: meaning 40, as in 40 days after the passing of a loved one..

It is a big honor to be included in a supra, called ormotsi, in this case, and the honor came to me in 2008, when my sister-in-law's mom passed away.
After the death, there is a week-long wake around the deceased, and this in her house, where she is on her bed, and visible to all who enter the bedroom. I had no desire to go in, since that was largely a foreign concept to me, and since I had just met the family, my place was certainly not there.
So, for a week, the family and friends come in, and cry, sometimes very loudly, around their dearly departed. It is a form of mourning that is interesting in the way that the people, with their cries, really express themselves in a physical way, and this together. This form of unity in mourning really differs from what the Western world does.

Then, a week later, the body is taken out of the house, accompanied by loud cries from the family and friends, and the casket is left open and placed on the shoulders of the carrying team, usually family members. In that case, her sons did. Then, the walking procession starts to the cemetery, still in a very vocal way. It was frankly heart-wrenching, but the family was so exhausted from crying, that they hardly seem to notice the world around. You will excuse the lack of pictures of this ordeal, of course, as I felt it totally inappropriate to take any.
The casket is then closed, put in the ground, and an orthodox priest says a few words, incense is being burned, and then the soil is added to the hole. When filled, the children, grown and young, throw themselves on the mound and cry more. This display of affection was to me a great introduction to the meaning of family in Georgia. Family ties are incredibly strong, partially, I suppose, because they live together with older and younger generations. Always a grandma on hand, or a grandpa, and they absolutely adore their children and grandchildren, tell them so all day, and have physical contact, hugs and such very often. Coming from a civilization where you had to be "seen not heard", it was unreal to me..

So, the mound over the casket is not covered for a period of 40 days after the death. It allows the soul of the dead to rise up. The final stone is put on the 40th day, with a ceremony not unlike the burial itself, but more subdued..All the personal papers of the deceased, such as passport and ID papers, are also put into the casket, sealing the "forever" part of the death..ormotsi means 40, and therefore the celebration of life is called ormotsi, since it has been exactly 40 days.

then, the party starts!!
Imagine hundreds of people, literally, coming to eat at your place.. I was told we were 300, but not all at the same time..People come in and contribute, give a certain amount of money, knowing it will more than cover what they will eat..A person sits at a single table, and takes in the contribution, and the names and amount are written in a special book, used, no doubt, to thank people later. no flowers are brought.

The amount of bread needed filled a room, there was stuff everywhere. It was awesome!
and the feast was AMAZING!

This is what we ate:
In order of appearance (I took notes.... :). Each line is one course..Keep in mind that it was during Lent, so most of the usual meat dishes had mushrooms instead..
-radishes, sprigs of fresh tarragon, and green onions
-lobiani: fresh bread filled with refried beans
-cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes cut and on a plate together, with chopped cilantro
-djondjoli, or pickled sprouts, and other pickled items
-round corn cakes called mchadi. A bit like corn bread..but better..a specialty of Western Georgia
-little blini with black mushrooms inside, rolled
-cooked spinach
-carrot salad
-potato salad
-cauliflower and walnut salad
-hot red beans
-chakapuli, which could have been meat, but was mushroom, with red spices
-in a tiny cup: wheat berries, honey and walnuts(that was wonderful)
-mashed potatoes and dill weed
-adjapsandali, a sort of ratatouille with eggplants, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes
-fruit platter with bananas, cut apples and other season fruit
-assorted cakes with cream, large slices
-sweet rice and apricots

- chai tea and Georgian coffee
and then, when they want the guests to leave, they serve chilaplavi, which is a rice dish, usually with mutton meat, but that day was mushroom). The guests then understand that it is the end of the meal..

-of course, all is served with copious amount of Georgian wines, mineral water and lemonade!

An old tumb in the cemetery

Georgian ladies are very often dressed in black. They wear their loss with their clothes, and follow a very strict rule of mourning periods. It is counted in months and years for family members. Therefore, a lady can have several members of the family pass away when she is in her fifties, which means that she will dressed in black for years. Along with the black clothing, she will also restrain from an fun activities, such as going to a restaurant or on vacation...Too strict for the average French girl , I'm afraid, but I have an immense respect for these women who wear their sorrow..It gives you a sense of loss, however, that I am not sure I could endure day after day.

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Menu Voyage

The food in Georgia!

THE WONDERFUL FOOD OF SAKARTVELO, an ongoing love story..

Meet “puri”, or bread in Georgian! This one is a special shape because it goes through a special process.

Here in Georgia, they cook bread in a round clay oven. It looks somewhat like a washing machine tumbler, and has hot ambers and a small fire in the bottom. The sides of the oven are hot, very hot...so the baker takes a ball of dough, and, in order to stick it to the side of the oven, has to stretch it a bit, hence the shape of the bread. When the bread is done, it falls from the side of the oven into the middle. It is then rescued and sold..It tastes, amazingly enough for us French in persuasion, like a crisp baguette! It has holes, and is crunchy on the outside and tender in the inside. Very yummy!


Other breads are cooked in regular ovens, and they don’t equal the taste of this cool one. They have loaf shapes, donut shapes and all kinds of other shapes.
Now, for a little treat, imagine this bread in a smaller size, the size of a hefty trout, let say. Now, make a slit in the middle, insert crumbled cheese, such as feta. Put it back in the oven, melt the whole mess, take it out, and then crack an egg on the top! Now, all you need is a fork! That is called “khatchapuri imayruli” and it is served on the western side of Georgia. That will equal and then surpass pancakes, I assure you! You will not want to eat for hours..but you will have to! :)
And now, for Khatchapuri, the answer to quesadilla in Georgia..devoured hot and melting..or cold and still hyper yummy! If it is filled with refried beans, like the dish on the left, it is called lobiani, because lobios are beans...just as yummy! In fact, this is not unlike Mexican cooking!



Since food is being served at all times of the day, the khatchapuri is eaten when it comes out of the fry pan, or oven. Mostly, with a cup of chai or tea. It is cut with scissors and served in pie-shaped portions. Jame! is the expression for "Eat, eat!", a national obsession, make the guests eat...

Khinkali, the answer to raviolis in Georgia. Here, they are prepared at home, or can be bought ready-made, but the taste suffers. The way to make this at home is to mix flour and water, no yeast, into a sort of bread dough. The dough is then kneaded with the fists and allowed to rest a while. Then, the dough is rolled very thin, and cut into rounds. Then the khinkalis are filled with a mixture of veal, beef, onions, cilantro, salt, garlic and water. The mixture is quite runny, for a very good reason. The water will eventually separate from the meat but stay in the little pouch made. That is the secret of the khinkalis: They have to
have a large amount of “juice” in them when you bite into them.

The little “bags” are sealed at the top and dropped into hot water, allowed to cook boiled for 10 to 12 minutes, and then devoured after a hefty pepper shaking. To be enjoyed with a very large beer..

The quince, or “comchi” here, is used in a variety of ways. It is boiled with a little sugar and the water that it is boiled in is served as “comchi compote” in a cup, to be had like a cup of tea, hot. Very interesting!

The pieces of quince are also eaten in a mashed form, a sort of heavy jam, used on bread. They can also be eaten in their hot syrup, or mixed with cooked white rice. Comchis are supposed to be good for your stomach and for someone with a persistent cough.

One cannot think of Georgian cooking without thinking of walnuts or "nigosi". They appear in almost every dish! Aside from satsivi which we will be covered later, they are used to season sweet and savory dishes.
One of these dishes consists of slices of eggplant, or badrigiani that have been partially peeled and then broiled to get a smoky flavor. The walnuts are then ground, spices are added, and the slices of eggplants are then slightly filled with the nuts, and folded in 3. Easy, yet delicious..By the second day, the juices of the eggplant and the walnuts mix and marry and the result is awesome!
Another use for walnuts is for a sweet dish called dzandili made of round wheat berries, cooked and cooled, mixed with honey, white raisins, and ...walnuts! Served cold in a glass.


An amazing product is made out of ...walnuts..and grapes, the second main ingredient in Georgia. It is called choorchrela. Walnuts halves are threaded on a light string, a few feet long. Then, grape juice and flour are boiled to make a heavy paste, called pelamushi, and the strings of walnuts are dipped repeatedly in the mixture to become completely covered and sealed in a tough covering. Strangely enough, it does not taste sweet! The taste of the walnuts is there, and the grape taste equally present. A most interesting use of walnuts! Can be kept for months! But better eaten in the fall, after the harvest.
Walnuts agrement fish sauces, chicken sauces, turkey dishes, vegetable dishes, desserts. You will find them hidden in layer cakes, one here and there..very sparingly..















Yogurt soup! Or mazoni soupi! Now, that is odd! First, onions are fried in butter, water and rice are added, then, a little dusting of flour, then, a hefty dose of yogurt, plain, of course, and at the end, beaten eggs. Imagine Chinese egg soup and put in some yogurt. Quite tasty, but surprising. The slight bitterness of the yogurt and the blandness of the eggs mix elegantly. And where do you get your yogurt, brought home in simple glass jars and covered with a heavy cream, you say? Well, the man from the hills will sell it to you! He comes on foot leading his horse!Incredible!
The use of fruit in Georgia is equally surprising. From the pitcher of blackberry homemade juice, complete with the berries at the bottom of the pitcher and served later as a dessert, to the alubali or sour cherries dropped into your cup of tea, the uses differ so much from the Western culture!
The markets here abound with citrus fruits, principally lemons and oranges. Georgia is also well known for its citrus, as this is a country where subtropical plants grow. The lemons are used for tea, another production of Georgia, in slices, and the oranges are cut in slices, together with kiwis and bananas for fruit platters.



So, how about pakhlava? I know what you are thinking...It's Bakhlava, right? Well, no...Took me 3 years to hear that it started with a "p" sound, and it is very different from what you would think of in Greece or in Turkey, for example.It is made with mock puff pasty dough, handmade, evidently, and then, you whip egg whites and sugar until it becomes very white and thick, like a stiff meringue prior to cooking, and you add ground nuts. Walnuts are good, but almonds are nicer. Then, you make a couple of layers of that, then top with melted butter. Half-way through cooking, add honey with a brush and let it cook a little longer. You can't imagine the goodness of that. Not syrupy like bakhlava, but sticky and yummy.




Here, shown with "f or peikhoa" ..I still don't know what fruit that is, but all I know is...It's very good! any ideas of what that would be? Citrusy, and almost gelatinous, and you can eat the skin. Almost tastes like a tart kiwi or a tart passion fruit? Yummy..and it cuts the sugar high of the pakhlava..

Tried to make this delicious pakhlava at home in France last week, and, yes, as expected, it was a dismal failure...Argh! Eka is just a specialist, and I will not try to outdo her. Pretty obvious it's better in Georgia..
And now for a summer treat....MSVADI!!!  One cannot go to Georgia and not have a bbq! It would be totally unacceptable!
So, msvadi is just that, a bbq of meat. Done on champuri, or skewers, they can be pieces of meat, or kababi, a blend of ground meat that is very carefully attached to the skewer, taking particular care to take the air out of the meat. Then, it is rolled in flat bread, called lavashi, and eaten with ajika, or other hot sauce..Yum!

Happy eating, everyone!