Easter Saturday

My Easter Saturday started in Sagarejo. It was a good morning, despite the fact that my parents were to go to the hospital _ that’s where they work, because they are doctors, so I was on myself in the house. Of course my grandparents were there, too, and then my aunt came from Tbilisi, so technically, I was not alone or something there. 

Holiday preparations at home

Well, my aunt knows how to prepare Ghomi _ this is a western Georgian dish, made in Samegrelo in particular. So, my other grandmother was Megrelian and she taught my aunt how to do Ghomi just the way Megrelians do it, so my aunt really knows how to make a great Ghomi and she loves it very much and she often prepares it and my grandmother likes it too and so you know, she prepares it very often as I said. And I want to mention that Ghomi is made from corn, they grind these corn seeds or whatever in a kind of way and then you can make Ghomi with that flour. We have corn in our lands near our vineyard, so we can have lots of Ghomi flour at home and that is a great thing not to buy that flour whenever you want to prepare Ghomi. Why I’m telling you this? Because, that day my aunt made some Ghomi, too, among some other things, and she knows I like Ghomi, too, and she called me to tell me that it was ready and to come and eat it while it was still hot and stuff like that. One other thing that I want to mention is that Ghomi is often associated with a dish where they put some Suluguni or Imeretian Cheesein it and that is just delicious stuff! She usually buys Imeretian Cheese with less salt and I think that is better with Ghomi than that Suluguni cheese. Well, Suluguni is great, too, and some people prefer it, but I don’t.

There is another sauce or something like that, I guess, it can be called a sauce. It is called Nadughi in Georgian and it is a great thing and my aunt really loves eating it with Ghomi. I remember, some years ago when I was little, you would find this Nadughi in Suluguni pieces on every holiday feast and stuff like that and it was not as fancy thing as caviar, but it was really fancy thing. And whenever they offered it to me, I refused to eat it, because I didn’t like it. But some time ago when I tried and tasted it I liked it and since that I usually eat it. It has many wholesome things in it and while it’s not a diet thing, it is a healthy product and you should definitely eat it time to time. It is made of milk that is bitter, I guess, or something like that and it kind of resembles that cottage cheese, but is more liquidy and  people add some mint to it that gives Nadughi a distinguished taste. It’s really delicious with or without Ghomi, I mean, you can eat it just the way it is, or you can eat it with Ghomi or whatever you want, it’s very tasty with many things.

Then I had some meat that was bought by my father and we wanted to prepare some Kashlama. So I started making it and well, it was really good. I won’t start telling you about preparing Kashlama and how it’s prepared, because I’ve written about it in another blog and if you are interested you can find it here somewhere. So, this Kashlama didn’t take long to be ready and it was a good sign, of course and everyone wanted to taste it, because I guess everyone loves it, especially in Kakheti, so we tasted it and I loved it and so did the others.

Well, it’s a good thing when there are many people in the house and everyone does their job and everyone is kind of busy but has time for others, too. That’s a perk of living in a big house with many people. And I can say, we were 6 there at that day or something like that.

To my grandmother's

After all these things, my aunt invited me to their house, which is not very far from our house and I had not been there for some time and I really wanted to go, so she drove to our house and took me to theirs. There are my aunt, my cousin and my grandmother. It was a nice day outside and my cousin and grandmother were outside. My grandmother was just doing some things in the yard and my cousin _ chilling outside. I was kind of surprised to see my cousin not sitting near the computer and playing some games, because he always plays games on computer and it’s just almost impossible to get him quit those games. Well, what can I say, I used to play computer games all the time when I was his age, I guess.

So, as you would have already guessed, it was a day before the major holiday, so my aunt was going to prepare some stuff for the holiday, too. We bought some cheese and ingredients for some dishes. I must say, that she prepares some really delicious Mchadi and so she made them and we ate all of it _ it was very good! And then it was time to prepare some Khachapuri and cake. She makes everything very delicious, if you want to know the truth, so it was a great thing to watch her do all those stuff. Well, to be honest, I was kind of sleepy, I don’t know why, perhaps I hadn’t slept well that day, or something like that. But still, I was holding up. And me and my cousin played some tricks on each other while she was doing all those things. She used flour, of course, for the dough and we would just put our hands in that flour and put that flour on each other and it was quite funny.

Oh, and we had Pascha, too. Although it was a small one, just for tasting, but it was pretty good and tasty and we enjoyed it very much. You would not think that it would be that delicious when looking at it! And I must say, that my aunt prepares Paschas every year. And if anyone has watched how they are prepared, you would know how difficult and time-consuming that is. And you can’t be sure that everything will come out as planned and the Paschas will be just perfect, or good, or something. And I hate that frustrating feeling you get when you do all that stuff, you spend all that time on that thing and try to do everything exactly the same as it’s said in a recipe or something and it just don’t come out the way you wanted. And, now, imagine, doing  everything for that Pascha and you get nothing! So, what I want to say is that it’s really hard to prepare Paschas by yourself and that’s why many people just buy them in grocery stores, or in bakery houses, where Paschas are especially baked and you can even order your own Pascha _ you can tell them how you want your Pascha to be _ should it be with chocolate or coconut or raisinsor whatever and they can prepare them for you. And they do that pretty well. I really love my aunt’s Paschas, because they have this distinguished taste and they are kind of heavy and not very dry and it’s just wonderful, so I always look forward to eating it. However, she was not going to prepare them on Saturday, and so I wasn’t able to watch her prepare the Paschas, but that was okay, at least, I would have a chance to eat them the next day or something.

So, as you can see, there are whole holiday preparations in Georgia in every family for the Easter holidays. They do many things and prepare many things and they gather together and, if you want to know the truth, I see some of my relatives on that holiday that I have not seen the whole year, so it’s  a big day for many reasons. And I just love this holiday for that. Everyone has fun communicating with each other and seeing each other.

Coming home

The day ended pretty good, I can say. I returned home and had a chat with my grandparents and another aunt (I guess, you remember this one. She is my father’s sister). And, yes, they were all waiting for me to come home, because I had bought this new Georgian fizzy drink that is called “Fizzy”. It has a great commercial on TV and everyone was just intrigued by that drink and, I can say, that it’s pretty good. It’s a soft fizzy drink with orange and now they have another type of that drink with lime and mint, I guess, it’s called “Mohito”. Well, I don’t know about Mohito, but the orange one is pretty good, and it resembles the original Fanta and, I think, everyone loves Fanta, so do my grandparents and aunt, and they were just looking forward to tasting this Fizzy. So everyone was happy when I came home and brought this drink and we all just drank it. My grandparents actually liked it and I was kind of surprised, because my grandmother is not that kind of person who likes some dishes and drinks that easily. I was really glad that she liked Fizzy.

The very ending was me watching this Georgian series which is called “Shua Kalakshi” (you can translate this as “in the middle of the city”). Well, technically, it’s now called “In the middle of the city _ 10 years later” and it is a great TV show, I think. It’s a comedy series and it has been on for a long time now. I think, they have 11 seasons or something and they are pretty popular among Georgians and I really like them. There’s a pure humour and just by watching it you can understand Georgian families and how they live. Of course, the things are not exactly the same in real life as they are in the series (everyone knows that), but they are pretty close to that. And while watching them, I have fun and I laugh pretty often and that’s why I love watching them, but, I think, they are just showing them on Saturdays and that’s very sad. I saw them on Sundays, too, but, I guess, they show some old ones on Sunday. Or, maybe not. I really don’t know, now that I think about it. I should check it out. Maybe they show new series on Saturdays and Sundays, too.

Then it was time to go to bed, as I was really sleepy and everything seemed so quiet and stuff. It’s kind of hard to fall asleep when you are already in bed and even after all those hours of feeling asleep, I couldn’t fall asleep at once, I don’t know why, but that was the fact. Still, it was a holiday coming and was kind of excited, I guess. And then I went on Facebook, and, you know, that is a bad idea going on Facebook when you want to sleep or something like that, but still, it’s kind of a habit and then you realize, you had better not have done that, but that’s too late by then and you just can not get rid of this thing, I guess. 

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