Aspiki or muzhuzhi

First of all I want to stress that this dish is coming from Georgia and is already counting at least 3 centuries of existence. In Russia it came from France and like everything French, 19th century Russian high society took it enthusiastically and made it its own. The basis of this dish is collagen extracted from animal bones and tissues. Hydrolyze turns it into condensing gelatin. To leave the biochemistry aside, condensation can be done with simply boiling bony meat hard. Add some aromatic ingredients to the broth and voila - you get a nice jelly including all those pleasant tastes and scents, that a delicious soup has, but in a way comfortable form for eating.

Polenta and mushroom salad

I love cornmeal and I love corn, but I hate monotony. Maize is the second largest yield in the world. Approximately 823 million tons are harvested annually. There are mostly three types of corn spread in the world – yellow, white and blue. Blue and yellow corn is rare in Georgia, but we do have white corn. There are many ways of grinding it, however, we only have coarse ground “Gherghili” and cornmeal in Georgia. The texture of Polenta, “Ghomi” of Italians, is rather lighter and pleasant, as it is equally milled. Sadly Georgians do no pay much attention to it.