In Georgia, presenting someone with too much food is a form of hospitality. Georgian feasts (called supras) involve filling the table with so many dishes, they’re often stacked and balanced on top of each other. A typical spread might include phkali (a minced vegetable salad), chicken salad (with rice), pancakes stuffed with meat, fish, jonjoli (pickled bladdernut flowers), sour plum sauce (red and green), guda (sheep’s milk cheese) and sulguni (cow’s milk cheese), “deda’s puri” (homemade bread), a raw veggie assortment, meat cutlets, and an eggplant and red pepper salad. Between feasts, there’s plenty to eat, like herbaceous khinkhali (dumplings) boiled in a wood-fired cauldron, bread pulled fresh from the tone (Georgian oven), and ooey gooey khachapuri.

Taken by travelers on our Georgian Culinary Adventure, consider these pictures an appetizer.