This is a travel/food vlog in Tbilisi, Georgia (day two) where the presenters (Nate, Kara, Charlie) attempt a self-directed food tour of nine traditional Georgian foods, visit the Deserter's Bazaar to try local sweets (churchkhela, fruit leathers, thick grape juice/cha-cha), experience an underground bakery, and later undergo a traditional Tbilisi sulfur-bath scrub and optional massage. The trip includes a practical hiccup at the train station (missing passports, ticketing confusion) and on-screen recommendations about the bath (prices and to bring cash/ATM). The tone is informal, experiential and food-focused.
Chapters
Cha cha drink.
No, no, no.
Wine.
Everyone here tries to give you cha cha wine. It's very nice, but it's also a very, very hard liquor.
Georgia is America.
Today is day two in Tbilisi, Georgia. Yesterday, we spent the day seeing all of the major sites, but today we're focusing on the food.
We've done a lot of research to come up with nine traditional Georgian foods that we want to try today. So we're going to do our own food tour. We're going to try to get through all of them. If we don't pop first, we're at our first stop and we're going to try King Kali, which is basically a big dumpling with meat and broth inside. Last year, we went to Russia, we went on a food tour, and we ate so much Georgian food. So ever since then, we've really been looking forward to coming here just to eat.
So maybe you're the next destination.
Should the Jordan. And.
I'm gonna teach Charlie how to do it. So Charlie's never had one before, and I'm gonna teach him how because there's definitely an art to it. Are you excited?
I'm very bloody excited.
So you have to grab, stomp.
Nope, no fork. No that. And turn it upside down.
Oh.
Oh, no. Oh, this one. Busted.
It's bloody hot. It's gonna burn me.
So you're gonna take a little bitty bite, but don't pull it away from your mouth and just drink the juice. You. We're taking a soup shot.
Yeah.
Okay, gotcha.
Ready?
Jeez, it's hot.
It is really hot. I'm crying a little bit.
Oh, delicious.
That is actually surprisingly good. Should have probably chewed.
That is amazing.
Loving it.
I really didn't make a new test.
Yeah. Way to go. Cheers. Cheers.
I'm not quite sure what I'm tasting, but it's Didi Madlova. No, that's. Thank you. It's delicious.
We're trying to learn a little bit of Georgian. The dough of the dumpling is, like, really thick and savory, and then it has a big chunk of meat in there with lots of herbs. Once you drink the soup, you just eat around the meat and then you throw the stuff out.
For our next stop, we are going to hop on the metro and head outside of the city to a place called the Deserter's Bazaar. It's supposed to be this huge market with tons of fresh fruits and vegetables, and we are in search of a traditional Georgian candy.
First time on the Georgian metro.
We just got to the Deserters. Market and it is super local. We might have timed it wrong because there aren't a ton of people around here, but they do have what we came for, which is church killer. And to coffee.
Thank you.
Oh, wow. It's like a spicy, Like a plum sauce. Pepper jelly. It's spicy.
I would love some.
Ooh.
Oh, I don't know.
Beautiful.
What do you think of.
Like, organic?
This isn't part of the food tour, but it is a fun experience. I don't know what to do with this now.
Flick it off.
She's very nice. I don't like it very much. Don't you? I don't think it's very good, but she gave me this very clean cloth to wipe it off with.
You didn't that job up perfect?
Oh, no.
What you do?
I lick it off.
Oh, it was so white.
It's delicious.
So this is what we came for. They call it the Georgian Snickers. It's nuts that have been put on a string and then they dip it in, like, thick grape juice so it forms this really sticky outside coating.
Oh, it's delicious. It's not super sweet. I like it a lot. Yeah. This one has a walnut inside.
I think we're going to have to buy one of those.
My favorite part is that everyone touches them. No one washes their hands. And then you eat them with the skin on it.
Gambrieli.
Yeah, that one's very good.
So bad.
So bad.
Thank you.
Three.
Huh?
Can we try this?
Suck on it. I think that's what that means.
Oh, it's sour.
What is it?
It's like fruit liver. It's like a fruit roll up. So they're made of all different kinds of fruits.
Natural product.
They smash them.
Uhhuh.
And then the sun dries them.
Super fantastic.
And then everyone touches them and then you eat them.
Kiwi.
Kiwi fruit.
Kiwi.
Can I try kiwi? Kiwi. Yeah. Kiwi.
Yes, I am.
Yeah.
Maybe just this one.
You so old woman, aren't you?
Diddy gong.
Mad, diddy mad.
Oh.
Tastes a bit like grass, woman.
One more thing.
One more thing.
Okay, we're not leaving. One more thing. Oh, she's pulling good stuff. She's pulling liquid out from behind the tarp. Drink.
Smells like fruit juice. Maybe non alcoholic.
Oh, it's like a super thick grape juice that burns as it goes down. Oh, it's really good. No, it's not wine. It's like too thick to be wine. Wine. No, Cha cha flavored cha cha. That's why it burns. So bad going there.
Would anyone like to try the cha.
Cha taja cha chava?
One moment. I'm grabbing you one.
This is the bucket that the cha cha came out of. It looks like they've just cut up a bunch of fruit and it's just sitting in there with the alcohol.
It's all the food that we tried today.
English how to tease.
Ciao. Bye.
That was not at all what I expected when we went to the local market. I was kind of disappointed when we got there and there wasn't a lot going on. But it's local interactions like that that just, like.
Totally took us under her wings. Like, we didn't even have to try. She was just like, you here and started giving us all.
I think that is how we left. We had tried everything in her stand.
She was so sweet.
We are in this underground bakery where you can just get a bunch of takeaway baked goods. It is just this huge underground room with a big oven. There's dough and bread and flour everywhere. And we just got a lobby. I think it's like a bean stuffed pastry.
This is so delicious. It is, like, the ultimate comfort food. The dough is so buttery and flaky. It's still super hot. And the beans are, like, almost meat flavored. Like, I feel like the beans were cooked in some kind of meat fat. So good.
Okay. As you can probably tell, it is several hours later. So the dessert bazaar sits right beside the train station. We thought we would pop over and buy our train tickets for Armenia.
We're 120 ticket stubs behind where we're at. It's going to be a really long way. And we're hungry.
884.
Oh, wait, it's number two.
No, no, no.
804.
Oh, yay.
I think maybe second class.
Second class. Several hours later, we still have no train tickets to Armenia. It was a total mess.
Yeah. Long story short, we didn't have our passports. Oh, no passport.
We need it. Can we tell you the number?
No passport.
You need the passport.
We had to leave and come back.
It's all Nate's fault.
Then the train was full, and we just had to redo all of our plans for the next week.
And then we booked tickets for a train. And then they were the wrong day because the lady didn't understand us.
We've done a lot of waiting around and wasting the entire, entire afternoon at the train station. But it's over now. We're back in the old town, and we're gonna try to save this food tour. Video and at least knock a couple more things off of our list.
Let's do it.
Am I recording? Since this vlog got caught along the shore with dogs Moving in a bit with a traditional Georgian basket experience. It smells like frostbite.
There's this beautiful tile sleeping lady.
Ah, it's so hot.
It's 90 degrees outside. And we decided that it was a.
Good idea to come in a room that is even hotter with water that's at least 100 degrees. Whose idea was this panda box?
Oh, come on. The three of us have all ordered a spry, and I think what's about to happen is that a lady is going to come in here, we are going to lay down in this aisle bed right behind us, and she is going to scrub each of us with a very hard mitten.
Oh, it smells so good. I would tell you.
Salty.
I can say I was looking forward to this. Just something about me that doesn't love losing layers of skin. I can just feel it being rubbed all across my back.
Look at it.
I feel like my legs are cleaner. Oh, it's just rolled up skin.
So hot. I'm ready to go.
It makes it even weirder having an audience.
How good does it feel?
Okay, so apparently you're supposed to rinse it all off with a cold shower.
Okay.
Should people come to the sulfur mass?
Yes. I would recommend getting the massage. We didn't have enough cash. $20 for a private room and $4 each for a scrub. And $4 each for a massage. Do all the above. Go to the atm, bring all your cash here.
And we're starting with buns.
Giddy up.
Like you eat around.
Garlic, ginger, chili. What else? Parsley and meat of some description.
Maybe beef.
To these.
Flippy chicken. Oh, it's got a nut.
Oh. Oh.
Maybe almost sausage too.
You have a way of making people laugh without escape. Speaking the same language.
