Spotted a new Georgian restaurant — Saperavi — on Upper West Side on Amsterdam and couldn’t hold it. I do miss this food and can have it any day.

What a gem!

Perfect pork mtzvadi, amazing selection of pkhali. Although I prefer lamb khinkali, their beef ones were so brothy, tasty, and just the perfect size — not too big to overwhelm, not too small to underserve — we inhaled them piping hot. And an excellent choice of pickles. They even had jonjoli, earthy, slightly bitter flower buds of a Georgian plant.

The two of us skipped khachapuri — for any of the Georgian cheese breads bigger company is better. The bread fills you up quickly and there’s so much on the menu to try.

People serving were easy and genial — as if we were in one of the warm green gardens of Mtskheta and not in Manhattan at Arctic temperatures. Hope this won’t change.

#food #georgianfood #outinnewyork #diningout #upperwestside #mtzvadi #khinkali #pkhali #jonjoli #newyorkrestaurant

Sauerkraut fish, suancai yu, is making a splash out of Flushing into Manhattan.

Yesterday on my walk through UWS and Morningside Heights along Broadway, I noticed quite a few places that previously could be found only at the end of the 7 line. Nai Brother Sauerkraut Fish was one of them.

Sauerkraut fish, a fish poached in pickled mustard broth, is one of Sichuan cuisine’s staples. It might look like a soup but I wouldn’t call it a soup. The liquid surrounding tender white fish fillets is thick. And intense! It is seriously sour, salty, tangy, funky, numbing, and very spicy hot — you have to be prepared.

Coming from the part of the world that survives on fermented-preserved-pickled everything, I got addicted to pickled mustard greens, suan cai, the moment I tried them first time in a Flushing basement.

At Nai Brother, we ordered their signature Naige bowl and a dry pot with fatty beef. In each bowl, fish or meat were mixed with different kinds of tofu, fungi, noodles, and vegetables that complemented texturally and picked up the sauce clean. A real deal — first spoonful transported us to China. We even paused and looked at each other. Tasty! Tasty! Tasty! And intense — the back, the shoulders felt the heat, ears tingled, faces blushed, noses ran.

As we were leaving, a middle aged Manhattanite with a flaxen ponytail settled at the table next to us. Raising her eyes from Neil Gaiman’s book she placed an order specifying low salt and no spice. To make sure he understood, the server politely bowed closer with a silent question in his eyes. It didn’t seem like a language barrier though.

I wonder how that went.

#food #diningout #manhattanrrstaurant #nycrestaurant #upperwestside #chinesefood #sichuancuisine #sauerkrautfish #mala #hotpot

It was a family movie night out but dinner first.

Chama Mama on Upper West Side in Manhattan.

Like everything that has a strong connection to childhood, Georgian food will forever hold a particular place in my mind and always draw me in. Especially now, at this strange moment in my life — when there’s everything everywhere all at once and mixed up.

But there’s Georgian food and, then, there’s Georgian food.

Food is an experience.

Georgian food can be a hearty chill out under the warm wing of Georgian friends and family in Tbilisi. It can be an apathetic cold stop in Moscow or we’re-hotter-than-you reminder in Brooklyn.

With an indifferent Soviet cold shoulder service — like a naphthalene vapor this one is hard to exterminate, with good Georgian food, and solid UWS prices, Chama Mama made me feel comfortably back at home, simultaneously keeping things in present.

— Very good pkhali selection.

— Nice variation on Adjaruli.

— Solid pork mtzvadi.

— Not too brothy but nevertheless tasty khinkali.

— Fine adjika trio but some versions leaning towards Chinese crisps.

— And a traditional all-Union popular Medovik cake slapped on the table with a traditional all-Union attitude: Here, we’re done.

The movie though! Don’t miss this slow mellow but stirring collection of three family stories written by Jim Jarmusch. Makes you think about your own, the one you’re writing.

#food #diningout #georgianfood #adjaruli #khinkali #mtzvadi #newyorkrestaurant #upperwestside #movienight #fathermothersisterbrother