Khachapuri Hut

James and I went to the mall on Monday for a mini-date while our nanny watched Cora.  I wanted to see what was there, and we thought we could stop in the food court as well and get a fast bite to eat.  The food court was virtually empty and was in the middle of a lot of construction.  It consisted of Burger King, Mama's Pizza, Popeye's and and Khachapuri Hut.

As we passed by Popeye's I noticed that there was no food displayed in any of the front bins, no one working in the food prep area, and just one employee sitting with her back to the front reading a book.  I have a feeling that food might not have been so fast.

Khachapuri is a Georgian staple.  And it is also super delicous.  It contains two of my three favorite foods.  Bread and cheese.  (Chocolate being the missing third.) There are several kinds of Khachapuri made with different textures of breads and sometimes different cheeses, but the one pictured above is one of my favorites.  It has a sulgumi cheese (much like the Greek halloumi)cooked in the middle of a light, flaky bread and then cheese on top.  It's all warm and delicious.

My picture does no justice to the actual delicacy, but what I thought was kind of funny and wanted to capture is that they had clearly adopted the name of their restaurant from the American "Pizza Hut."   Khachapuri then, is the Georgian Pizza.  We got a bean filled and spinach filled one too.  Yes, they thought we were psycho for ordering so many, but my husband can never resist food and why eat one when you can eat three?

I thought this was another interesting side note about Khachapuri from Wikipedia:  As a Georgian staple food, the price of making a Khachapuri is used as a measure of inflation in different Georgian cities by the Khachapuri index, developed by the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University.

Aren't you happy I wrote a blog that isn't all tragic and dramatic? Consider this a palate cleanser.  I'll be back tomorrow with more harrowing tales of motherhood.