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This book, one of the first in English about everyday life in the Republic of Georgia, describes how people construct identity in a rapidly changing border region. Based on extensive ethnographic research, it illuminates the myriad ways residents of the Caucasus have rethought who they are since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Through an exploration of three towns in the southwest corner of Georgia, all of which are situated close to the Turkish frontier, Mathijs Pelkmans shows how social and cultural boundaries took on greater importance in the years of transition, when such divisions were expected to vanish.

By tracing the fears, longings, and disillusionment that border dwellers projected on the Iron Curtain, Pelkmans demonstrates how elements of culture formed along and in response to territorial divisions, and how these elements became crucial in attempts to rethink the border after its physical rigidities dissolved in the 1990s. The new boundary-drawing activities had the effect of grounding and reinforcing Soviet constructions of identity, even though they were part of the process of overcoming and dismissing the past. Ultimately, Pelkmans finds that the opening of the border paradoxically inspired a newfound appreciation for the previously despised Iron Curtain as something that had provided protection and was still worth defending. ... Read more

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"Every Georgian dish is a poem."
--Alexander Pushkin

According to Georgian legend, God took a supper break while creatingthe world. He became so involved with his meal that he inadvertentlytripped over the high peaks of the Caucasus, spilling his food ontothe land below. The land blessed by Heaven's table scraps was Georgia.

Nestled in the Caucasus mountain range between the Black andCaspian seas, the Republic of Georgia is as beautiful as it isbountiful. The unique geography of the land, which includes bothalpine and subtropical zones, has created an enviable culinarytradition. In The Georgian Feast, Darra Goldstein explores therich and robust culture of Georgia and offers a variety of temptingrecipes.

"If you've got Georgia on your mind, then The Georgian Feast isrequired reading. This superbly written book is part ethnography, partgeography, and part cookbook. Ms.Goldstein describes the ruggedtopography and turbulent history of this region that was once acrossroad of trade between Asia and Europe. These cultural influences,along with a healthy variety of food-producing environments, have ledto a rich native cuisine." --Anthony Dias Blue ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

GREAT BOOK
It is an amazing book - everybody who is interested in Georgian should read it. The book includes lot of information about the culture as well.

thank you

best georgian cookbook i could find
I got my first copy many years ago from amazon.I am from Georgia and have to say this is in my opinion the best Georgian cookbook in English I could find (there may be more options available today, but several years ago I found this to be the best).I find recipes easy to follow and the ingredients are mostly americanized (what I mean by that is that i can easily find them in my local store in the U.S.)
I have since bought many copies of this book for my friends, relatives, and anybody who is remotely interested in Georgia cuisine or culture.There is a section on Georgian culture and traditions in the beginning of the book which is in my humble opinion is simply beautiful.
Thank you Ms. Goldstein.I've been meaning to write this review for years now, but better later than never.Thanks again.

Cuisine from the Crossroads of the World
Book: "The Georgian Feast", by Darra Goldstein

Winner of the IACP Book of the Year for 1999, Professor Darra Goldstein's "The Georgian Feast" offers English speaking Westerners an interesting and well researched peek at the cuisine of the Georgia.Not the State of Georgia in the Southeastern United States, mind you, but rather THE GEORGIA, as in the (formerly Soviet) Republic of Georgia, which spans the lands between the Black and Caspian seas, north of Turkey, and South of Russia.The veritable crossroads of the ancient world, through which much of the trade between Europe, Greece, Rome, Russia, India, the Mid East, and China flowed.

LIKES:

* INTRODUCTION:For me, the single biggest joy of this book is the in-depth introduction to Georgian history, geography, and culture ... something I wish more authors would attempt, but which all too often is limited to only the most capable, motivated, and historically erudite authors, few of whom bother to turn their attentions to the culinary genre.In this case, we are blessed with a Russian Professor who labored to assemble an engrossing overview of Georgian feast cuisine.The 25 page introduction and 57 page cultural excursion chapters are gems, and are worth the cover price of the book, all by themselves.

* HEAD NOTES:Many of the recipes in part 2 also include indepth and informative head notes on the ethnic origin and cultural contexts of a given recipe, sometimes replete with cultural vignettes and famous quotes.Again, something I wish more authors would include.To me, a recipe is a participatory story in which you commune with those who created and enjoyed the recipe before you ... and those who will go on making the recipe after you are gone.

* ETHNIC BREADTH:The author covers a wide smattering of the styles present in the cuisine ... grilled fare, pilafs, stews, salads, pickles, soups, desserts, and goes to considerable effort to identify the ethnic and geographical origins behind selections from each.She also spends a little time covering things like `feast' etiquette, and hospitality, that many Westerners will find interesting.


MINOR NITS:

* UNPOLISHED RECIPES:The author does an excellent job relating historical and cultural tidbits, but her recipe documentation skills are a bit uneven and unpolished ... walking a meandering line between antique/rustic, and (in a few places) modern.Personally, I don't mind unpolished free-form historical recipes that omit helpful things like the optimum size/shape of vegetable dice (and meat fabrication), size/type of pan, suggested cooking times, optimal sequencing of steps, comforting photos, and tips on making ahead or leftovers management.However, those who DO feel a strong need for such things may be disappointed by their absence.

* MINOR NON-AUTHENTIC SLIPS:The author does a fine job in most of the book giving slightly modernized adaptation of authentic recipes.However, in several instances, some recipes are over modernized, to their detriment.For example, the recipe for "Cold Jellied Pork" on p.96, the authoress indicates the use of pigs feet and a little pork shoulder, but in deference to modern sensibilities, calls for the feet to be discarded after simmering (prior to straining and reducing the stock to a jelly into which the meat is set).I'm pretty certain, sight unseen, that period recipes would likely have called for the feet to be simply deboned and coarsely chopped along with the shoulder, rather than discarded ... such waste is only common to modern cuisine.

* MINOR ERRORS:Minor errors abound - such as the yeast bread on p.138 that appears to call for too much yeast.

* IMPRECISE TERMINOLOGY:In addition to the frequent lack of things like dice size, the author sometimes uses terms in a somewhat vague fashion ... such as "Salt" (is it fine table salt, medium salt, or coarse salt ?), yeast (baker's ? instant rise ?) or "Dried Fenugreek", the latter of which the reader must hunt around to confirm that it refers to dried ground leaves, not dried ground seeds.The helpful introductory chapter on ingredients covers some (but not all) of these, but the editor could and should have clarified the recipes on such points.

All in all, I was very happy with this book, and I'm looking forward to exploring some flavors and techniques that are a bit new to me (walnut sauces, pomegranate juice, etc.).

Despite the lack of polish in the recipe section, I highly recommend this book for the culinarily inquisitive who like to cook exploratively, without the comforting training wheels of precise measures and photos.

OK.But not very authentic
This is an ok effort by Ms. Goldstein but unfortunately the recipes don't quite result in the amazing flavors that Georgian cuisine is known for.Perhaps it is Ms. Goldstein's substitutions of less authentic ingredients as some ingredients in the "real" dish are hard to find.Perhaps it is something else.(Her "adjika" is REALLY bad/wrong for instance....)

OK book if you want an idea of what Georgian cuisine is like.Not good if you REALLY want the real thing...

An authoritative English-language resource on Georgian cuisine
This is a marvelous, utterly authentic encyclopedia of Georgian cooking. I tried some of the recipes before leaving for Georgia in summer 2006, and they were great, and gave me a good idea of what to expect. Once in Georgia, the book was an invaluable reference that I constantly turned to whenever I tried something new. Just about *everything* I had is in here, along with many things I didn't get around to sampling.

This book also helped me learn the correct Georgian names for the dishes and many of the ingredients. A significant portion of the book is devoted to providing cultural background on Georgia and Georgian food, such the elaborate rules for a _tamada_, or Georgian toastmaster. With its charming photos of representative paintings scattered generously throughout its pages, it also made me a Pirosmani fan, and better able to appreciate the originals when I saw them for myself.

Most importantly, as the other reviewers say, the recipes *work*. We just made the potato salad with walnut paste (p. 172), and it was delectable. Other dishes we have tried and like include tomato soup with walnuts and vermicelli (p. 73) and green beans with egg (p. 130). Pkhali was one of my favorite dishes in Georgia, and I'm glad to have the recipe for when I get around to making it myself. There is a recipe for beets with cherry sauce, a dish a travel companion had tried but that even some of our Georgian hosts weren't familiar with. For the few recipes that seem to be missing from this book, like eggplant with walnut paste, try Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook, another excellent collection of delicious recipes from all the former Soviet republics.

_The Georgian Feast_ is well worth having even if you don't eat meat - many of the recipes are completely vegetarian. This book is a real treasure.
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Describes the geography, history, government, economy, people, lifestyle, religion, language, arts, leisure, festivals, and food of a Caucasian republic with a turbulent past. ... Read more

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Students struggling to find information on the modern lives of those living in Eurasia need not look any farther! Written for high school and undergraduate students, Culture and Customs of the Caucasus fills a major void on library shelves. This unique reference work explores contemporary life in three former Soviet Union republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. No other reference book offers such exhaustive material on the traditions and customs of all three nations. Students studying world culture, social studies, and multicultural issues can use this engaging and comprehensive volume to learn about the Caucasus's history, urban life, religion, literature, cuisine, holidays, and leisure activities, among many other topics.

In the early 1990's, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia emerged from the grip of the Soviet Union and stood on their own for the first time in almost a century. Today, these three nations are slowly emerging from communism's dark cloud, thriving culturally and gaining strength economically. Written for high-school students, Culture and Customs of the Caucasus is the ultimate one-stop reference source that explores the three countries in the region-no other reference work provides such comprehensive and current material. Students studying world culture, social studies, and multicultural issues can use this engaging and wide-ranging volume to learn about the Caucasus's history, urban life, religion, literature, cuisine, holidays, and leisure activities, among many other topics.

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This important book was compiled under the auspices of the Vano Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire, International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony in Tbilisi, Georgia. This collection is aimed to those who are interested in Georgian traditional polyphonic singing. It contains seventeen works of seventeen authors, both foreign and Georgian scholars, written throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Eleven of these works had been published before (but not in English), and six of the articles were written by contemporary scholars for this collection. Problems of the origins, distribution, ethno-cultural interaction with other cultures, identity, scales, harmony, issues of vocal and instrumental polyphony are discussed in these articles. Georgian traditional polyphony has long since become a symbol of the complexity that traditional musical culture can achieve in creating sophisticated forms of multi-part singing. In 2001, UNESCO proclaimed Georgian polyphonic singing a 'Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity'.Earlier, in 1977 Georgian song Chakrulo was included among the very limited amount of information about the Earth and its diverse cultures that was launched into space. Georgia is becoming one of the international centers of the study of the traditional polyphony. ... Read more

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For the last two decades, the world has been constantly facing challenges having completely new qualities: the growing tension between West and East, the uncontrolled spread of weapons of mass destruction, and the problems of facing large-scale ecological, demographical, technological, social and attitudinal dilemmas. In recent times a dialogue of civilisations has become a global and particularly pressing issue. As a result of intensive economic, political and cultural intercommunication, the world has become transformed into one indivisible system: present-day processes in one region greatly impact the functioning of the entire system. This new and important book is based on the proceedings of a conference in Tbilisi, Georgia dedicated to Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II, one of the world's foremost supporters and initiators of such a dialogue. ... Read more

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This book contains papers representing the results of the latest research into the relationship between the 'imperial' culture of the Achaemenids and local traditions. Some of them are devoted to the Southern Caucasus, especially to latest archaeological excavations and to investigations into specific categories of archaeological finds. Other articles concern other regions of the Achaemenid world. The article by L. Summerer represents a publication of a unique work of art: the painting on one of the walls of a wooden tomb in Tatarli in Western Anatolia, depicting a battle between Persians and warriors of nomadic (Scythian-Saka) appearance. The article by S. Sajjadi presents readers with the results of interesting research, which has been going on in Sistan. ... Read more

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This collection of essays spans numerous disciplines, including urban planning, architecture, and history. The study focuses on the interrelated transitions of city culture and city planning in modern Georgia, establishing a field of connections between city culture and planning that is unsurpassed in breath and depth. The combination of well-established Georgian and international scholars allows for an in-depth analysis of this multiplicity of relations, an analysis that sheds new light on city planning, the role of knowledge, trust, networks, and heritage as it elucidates the shortcomings of 'transition' concepts in new ways. Concepts of identity occur over and over again in the essays, with city space appearing as an arena for identity politics. This book is timely, given the recently renewed history of conflicts in the Caucasus, and it contributes to scholarship in the area by detailing the difficulties of reshaping city and society when threats are imminent, resources are scarce, and democratic institutions are fragile. ... Read more

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Enlivened by Irish humor and colorful turns of phrase, this collection of Pierce Butler's letters offers a new perspective on the most enigmatic of South Carolina's signers of the Constitution and on the formative years of the American republic. Describing Butler as an intriguing question mark among the founding fathers, Terry W. Lipscomb presents a cache of correspondence that covers the senator's service during the First, Second, and Third Congresses of the United States. In the first major collection of Butler's writings to be published in book form, Lipscomb offers a detailed biographical sketch of the man and explains the value of his letters--including correspondence to such contemporaries as George Washington, John Adams, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, Wade Hampton, Andrew Pickens, Charles Pinckney, James Gunn, and Archibald Maclaine.

Lipscomb recounts Butler's rise to prominence, from his early days as an Irish-born officer in the British army to his marriage into the lowcountry's Middleton family. More Virginian than Charlestonian in his political views, Butler holds a place of notoriety as the delegate who pushed for the adoption of an electoral college and who allegedly wrote the Constitution's fugitive slave clause. Lipscomb shows Butler to have been a strict constitutional constructionist, a persistent advocate of religious liberty, and an admirer of the French Revolution. He also favored making government actions more transparent and pioneered the tactic of leaking privileged information.

Offering an insider's view of the early Senate at a time when it conducted its business behind closed doors, these letters present a new resource on the history of the young republic. ... Read more

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This book looks at Georgia, which since its independence, has been the most vocally independent-minded country in the former Soviet Union. Russia countered Georgia's independence by strong support for secessionist minorities such as those in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Since President Vladimir Putin's coming to power, Russian pressure on Georgia to reverse its pro-Western course has grown measurably. Following the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia, relations with Russia turned sour as the new government proved both democratic and single-mindedly focused on rebuilding the Georgian state, resolving the secessionist conflicts, and seeking NATO membership - all anathema to Moscow. This book discusses the present situation in Georgia and examines Georgia's efforts to democratise and bolster its free market economy, while surmounting separatism, Russian economic sanctions and other problems. ... Read more

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An astonishing variety of captivity narratives emerged in the fifty years following the American Revolution; however, discussions about them have usually focused on accounts of Native American captivities. To most readers, then, captivity narratives are synonymous with "godless savages," the vast frontier, and the trials of kidnapped settlers. This anthology, the first to bring together various types of captivity narratives in a comparative way, broadens our view of the form as it shows how the captivity narrative, in the nation-building years from 1770 to 1820, helped to shape national debates about American liberty and self-determination.

Included here are accounts by Indian captives, but also prisoners of war, slaves, victims of pirates and Barbary corsairs, impressed sailors, and shipwreck survivors. The volume's seventeen selections have been culled from hundreds of such texts, edited according to scholarly standards, and reproduced with the highest possible degree of fidelity to the originals.

Some selections are fictional or borrow heavily from other, true narratives; all are sensational. Immensely popular with American readers, they were also a lucrative commodity that helped to catalyze the explosion of print culture in the early Republic. As Americans began to personalize the rhetoric of their recent revolution, captivity narratives textually enacted graphic scenes of defiance toward deprivation, confinement, and coercion. At a critical point in American history they helped make the ideals of nationhood real to common citizens.

... Read more