Move over khachapuri and khingali and make way for croissants and croque-monsieurs. That, at least, is the plan of Entree, a Georgia-based mini-chain of French bakeries and cafes which plans to start expanding regionally. French food with a Georgian twist? Full details here.
Uta Beyer, a Georgia-based photographer and frequent Kebabistan contributor, recently visited the Georgian city of Mtskheta for its annual "Mtsketoba" religious festival, which celebrates the building of the city's Svetitskhoveli Church 1,700 years ago with music and celebrations held in the streets of the city, once Georgia's capital. As Uta writes, despite the religious intent, the event is really about the food, "the air filled with shashlik smoke."
The accompanying photos were taken by Uta at the festival.
Exporting wine, mineral water and nuts is so yesterday. Georgia did it before and does it now, but it's time for new ideas. With more and more Georgian croakers now ending up on French plates, it is instead frog meat that may become Georgia's next hot export.
The Agriculture Ministry was excited to report on August 9 that frog exports are on the rise. If in 2009 Georgia exported 96 kilos of frog legs, in the first six months of 2010 alone 60 kilos of frog meat, worth a whopping $497, were dispatched to Europe; mainly to France, of course.
Apart from the frozen meat, Georgia sells live frogs as well. Unappreciated by local gourmets, as many as 250,500 frogs, worth some $14,600, left their native swamps in Georgia in 2009 to meet eager bon vivants in France.
Uta Beyer is a German who lives in Tbilisi, Georgia, where she works on economic cooperation projects. She's also a fantastic photographer with a keen and frequently whimsical eye. Her blog, Georgia Unlimited, has some great images, particularly a series of shots (like the one above) that take a very loving look at butchered pigs for sale in Tbilisi's main meat market.
I asked Uta to give a little bit more information about the photos. Here is what she had to say:
