Racha (რაჭა) is a region that you don’t hear much about, comparatively speaking. Kakheti has wine, Samegrelo has spicy food, Adjara has great beaches. But Racha? More off the beaten path. But I have been intrigued for years, mostly – and I admit this is quite silly of me – because my favorite traditional dance comes from Racha.
Feel free to play this video of the Racha song and dance (with a modern twist, although I will say exposed midriffs are incredibly rare here) as you scroll through some of my favorite scenes from our trip there last week.
When you go to Batumi visit Mtsvane Kontskhi! It looks very beautiful, but as I know it’s not easy to find dit. It’s in the Botanical Garden. Here is the link where it looks very great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XFHVS-mHo8
Yeah, I really recommend you to watch it! 🙂 The beach is very special because there are not so many visitors there. They should ”dig up” more beaches like that near the Mtsvane Kontskhi.
It would be very cool if sand would be imported to Batumi/Kvariati beaches. Saakashvili was planning on doing it in 2012 I think, but it didn’t work out :l
Just to make sure when I wrote Mtsvane Kontskhi I meant the beach in the Botanical garden Mtsvane Kontskhi 🙂 Botanical Garden must be beautiful as well.
And when you were in Adjaria, have you had the chance to try Adjarian dishes such as borano, Adjarian cheese(the technique of preparing it is kind of similar to tenili kveli and it looks like it in a way), kaimagi-კაიმაღი(prepared from diary products), malakhto-მალახტო, and iakhni იახნი? It’s probably best to visit some family in Adjarian village which would prepare the tastes Adjarian dishes 🙂 Here is the list of tastiest Adjarian dishes according to this website: http://gobatumi.com/ge/discover-ajara/top-facts/top-10-delicious-food-you-have-to-try-in-ajara/166 🙂
Thank you so much for replying me! When you’ll travel Svaneti don’t forget to try their various dishes too! 🙂 The taste in Svaneti villages is out of this world… Try their potatoes!!
They have a dish like elarji but only with Svanetian potatoes… It’s called tashmijabi and there is written shorty in wikipedia about it here: *https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%83%97%E1%83%90%E1%83%A8%E1%83%9B%E1%83%98%E1%83%AF%E1%83%90%E1%83%91%E1%83%98( , fish kubdari is also common in Svanetia.
There are many Svanetian dishes just that there isn’t much info about it English If you are able to read in Georgian you can more about Svanetian dishes here : http://agrokavkaz.ge/carmoeba/svanuri-samzareulo-kubdari-tchishtvari-letsvmari-lukne-qnashi.html There are like 10 disheshnamed there. If you don’t understand it then please reply me that and I can translate for you some parts 🙂
I promise that this is the last comment today! 😛 I found one more Svanetian dish! It’s a nettle soup and the name of it is Merkheli, but I’m unfortunately not able to tell you how popular it’s there since it’s the first time I hear about it too… Here is the link of it: http://www.imedi.ge/index.php?pg=nws&id=52044 There are several links I found about it so it must be ”known” to some degree 🙂
We just returned from Svaneti, however we mostly stayed in Mestia and therefore it was somewhat touristy. We did have some fantastic kubdari, but weren’t able to dig into other local dishes in the villages. We will keep our eyes open for these…and I suppose it’s a reason to go back! 😊
Beautiful pictures, interesting info!
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Thank you!
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When you go to Batumi visit Mtsvane Kontskhi! It looks very beautiful, but as I know it’s not easy to find dit. It’s in the Botanical Garden. Here is the link where it looks very great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XFHVS-mHo8
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We were just there a few days ago 😊
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There are not usually so many people there since not many know about it 🙂 So I recommend you go there
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Really? Did you like it? Does it look like in the video? 🙂
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We did love it! It poured on us but we had ponchos. Haven’t been able to watch the video since we are away from fast internet – we will! Thanks! 😊
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Yeah, I really recommend you to watch it! 🙂 The beach is very special because there are not so many visitors there. They should ”dig up” more beaches like that near the Mtsvane Kontskhi.
It would be very cool if sand would be imported to Batumi/Kvariati beaches. Saakashvili was planning on doing it in 2012 I think, but it didn’t work out :l
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We did not go to the beach because t was pouring rain, sadly. We were drenched but enjoyed the botanical gardens in our ponchos!
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Just to make sure when I wrote Mtsvane Kontskhi I meant the beach in the Botanical garden Mtsvane Kontskhi 🙂 Botanical Garden must be beautiful as well.
And when you were in Adjaria, have you had the chance to try Adjarian dishes such as borano, Adjarian cheese(the technique of preparing it is kind of similar to tenili kveli and it looks like it in a way), kaimagi-კაიმაღი(prepared from diary products), malakhto-მალახტო, and iakhni იახნი? It’s probably best to visit some family in Adjarian village which would prepare the tastes Adjarian dishes 🙂 Here is the list of tastiest Adjarian dishes according to this website: http://gobatumi.com/ge/discover-ajara/top-facts/top-10-delicious-food-you-have-to-try-in-ajara/166 🙂
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I am happy to say we were able to try all those! So glad we were, too – delicious 😊
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Thank you so much for replying me! When you’ll travel Svaneti don’t forget to try their various dishes too! 🙂 The taste in Svaneti villages is out of this world… Try their potatoes!!
They have a dish like elarji but only with Svanetian potatoes… It’s called tashmijabi and there is written shorty in wikipedia about it here: *https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%83%97%E1%83%90%E1%83%A8%E1%83%9B%E1%83%98%E1%83%AF%E1%83%90%E1%83%91%E1%83%98( , fish kubdari is also common in Svanetia.
There are many Svanetian dishes just that there isn’t much info about it English If you are able to read in Georgian you can more about Svanetian dishes here : http://agrokavkaz.ge/carmoeba/svanuri-samzareulo-kubdari-tchishtvari-letsvmari-lukne-qnashi.html There are like 10 disheshnamed there. If you don’t understand it then please reply me that and I can translate for you some parts 🙂
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A more detailed link where you can read about the receipt 🙂 http://gastroguide.borjomi.com/ge/recipes/view/87/tashmijabi–svanuri-elarji
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the fish kubdari is called kalmakhis kubdari 🙂
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I promise that this is the last comment today! 😛 I found one more Svanetian dish! It’s a nettle soup and the name of it is Merkheli, but I’m unfortunately not able to tell you how popular it’s there since it’s the first time I hear about it too… Here is the link of it: http://www.imedi.ge/index.php?pg=nws&id=52044 There are several links I found about it so it must be ”known” to some degree 🙂
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We just returned from Svaneti, however we mostly stayed in Mestia and therefore it was somewhat touristy. We did have some fantastic kubdari, but weren’t able to dig into other local dishes in the villages. We will keep our eyes open for these…and I suppose it’s a reason to go back! 😊
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I checked and there must be some Svanetian restaurants in Tbilisi.Check this out for example 🙂 http://info-tbilisi.com/ushba/
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Thank you! Hopefully we will be able to try this place! 😊
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I just discovrered Svaneti blood pudding sausage 🙂 doesn’t sound very delicious, but might be tempting to give it a try! Here is the link for it:http://samzareulo.ucoz.com/news/svanuri_ziskhora_siskhlis_dzekhvi/2011-08-24-424 It’s called http://samzareulo.ucoz.com/news/svanuri_ziskhora_siskhlis_dzekhvi/2011-08-24-424 ziskhora,ზისხორა
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by the way, it’s a blood sausage of pig blood :l
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Sulguni in Svanetian way: https://www.facebook.com/Kubdari/photos/a.392384010781111.100895.203493723003475/395129117173267/?type=1&theater
According to the short description tables used to be decorated with kaarz 🙂
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The last one really!! found one more dish. This is Svanetian chicken Pkhali: https://www.facebook.com/Kubdari/photos/a.392384010781111.100895.203493723003475/423853260967519/?type=1&theater
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I was looking at Georgian dances and found this Rachvelian dance 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihea9zjvmns
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