MUNCHIES just published my article on khachapuri: “Georgia’s Cheese Bread Might Be Better Than Pizza”. It covers all the various types of cheese breads you can find in Georgia, from the classic Imeretian khachapuri to the much rarer khabizgini.
To help you orient yourself, I’ve created a map of all the Georgian regions that claim their own local variations of the dish. As you can see, they are pretty much all located in Western Georgia, which makes me wonder if there’s a connection with the historical division between the kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia in antiquity. That is, I wonder if cheese breads descend only from the former.
And as a bonus, here’s a chart plotting data from the infamous Khachapuri Index. Khachapuri ingredients are most expensive in winter, and cheapest in summer, with smaller fluctuations in the capital city, Tbilisi. I wish there was something totally earth-shattering to say about those figures, but, well, there isn’t. At best, we can wonder: what caused a spike in Batumi in August 2013. Any ideas?
