Ask Georgians where the boldest food in the country is cooked and many will say Samegrelo. This western region between the Black Sea and the mountains of Svaneti is famous for fiery sauces, enormous amounts of cheese and corn instead of wheat. Megrelian restaurants are all over Tbilisi, but the real taste is best discovered locally — in Zugdidi, Martvili or Senaki.

What makes it different

  • Spicy. Megrelians love hot peppers and adjika; dishes that are mild elsewhere get a kick here.
  • Cheesy. Sulguni comes from here and goes into almost everything: porridge, khachapuri, sauces.
  • Corn. Instead of wheat bread people traditionally eat ghomi, cornmeal porridge, and mchadi cornbread.
  • Walnuts and spices. Walnut sauces with blue fenugreek, coriander and Imeretian saffron underpin many dishes.

The key dishes

Ghomi

Ghomi is a thick porridge of coarse cornmeal, cooked without salt or butter and stirred for a long time with a wooden paddle. It replaces bread with spicy dishes and is topped with slices of fresh sulguni that slowly melt. Plain-looking, surprisingly delicious.

Elarji

Elarji is ghomi with lots of sulguni worked in until the cheese melts and the mass becomes stretchy. It is eaten hot, pulling the cheese strings with a fork — one of the most filling dishes in Georgia and a visitor favourite.

Megrelian kharcho

In Samegrelo kharcho is not a soup but a thick stew of beef or chicken in a sauce of walnuts, hot pepper, garlic and spices, eaten with ghomi or elarji. Very spicy and very rich — order one portion for two.

Kuchmachi

Kuchmachi is offal — liver, heart, lungs — in walnut sauce with pomegranate and spices, a festive dish in Samegrelo, often made for guests.

Megruli khachapuri

Megruli has cheese inside and on top; in Zugdidi it comes with especially generous sulguni.

Cheese pies and flatbreads

Samegrelo markets sell homemade flatbreads and pies with cheese, sometimes with greens or beet tops. If you see them, try them — it's what locals snack on.

Chicken in spicy sauce

Chicken in walnut sauce Megrelian style is hotter than elsewhere, and chicken stewed in a spicy adjika and garlic sauce is also popular.

Gebzhalia

Gebzhalia are rolls of young cheese with mint in a matsoni or sour-cream sauce — a fresh, gentle starter that cools the heat of the main dishes.

Megrelian adjika

Real adjika is a Megrelian invention: a paste of hot pepper, garlic and spices without tomatoes. Red adjika is made from dried chillies, green from fresh ones. It goes into kharcho and marinades and is spread on bread and meat. If you like heat, bring a jar home from Zugdidi market.

What to drink

  • Ojaleshi, the local red grape, often made semi-sweet and soft;
  • semi-sweet reds, which tame the heat;
  • cold beer and lemonades;
  • matsoni, if it gets too hot.

Where to eat

  • Zugdidi, the regional capital, has many family restaurants, and its central market sells sulguni, adjika, spices and fresh fruit.
  • Martvili and Senaki — roadside restaurants on the way to the Martvili and Okatse canyons serve Megrelian food.
  • Tbilisi — look for "Megruli" or "Samegrelo" on the menu or sign.
  • Guesthouses — the best way to taste homemade ghomi and elarji.

How spicy?

If you don't like heat, say so in advance: "ar minda tskhare" — "I don't want it spicy". Some dishes, like kharcho, are never mild. Start with elarji, gebzhalia and khachapuri, and try spicy dishes bit by bit with ghomi and matsoni.

What else to see

Combine food with nature: the Martvili Canyon, Okatse Canyon, Prometheus Cave in neighbouring Imereti and the Dadiani Palace in Zugdidi. A one- or two-day route from Kutaisi with lunch in a Megrelian home works well.

In short

Megrelian food is cheese, corn, walnuts and fire. Order elarji, ghomi with sulguni, Megrelian kharcho and gebzhalia, wash them down with Ojaleshi or a cold lemonade, and buy adjika at Zugdidi market. After that, the rest of Georgian food will seem very gentle.