The Family come to Kaspi

Tuesday 20th March 2012

Our village family are coming to Kaspi for a traditional roast dinner.  I feel like a newly married wife who are hosting “the family” for the first time.  We don’t really know what this means.  We know that there are 10 people coming and this includes my old teachers and there will be men there as well. We think this means that Martin will have to go to a restaurant and buy them wine and food.  Apparently when I issued invites I invited everyone and told them that was what we would do.  I was drunk and therefore do not remember this at all.  Blame the cha-cha that’s what I say!

There was quite a bit of preparation as you probably realise.  First, the cleaning, which other than the obvious, no-one notices or appreciates.  Martin had a thing about the curtains so we washed, dried and ironed the curtains!  It was a windy day and so this wasn’t the usual 4 day turnaround for clothes-drying.  I shouldn’t complain really – when I think of the work in running a home with 3 children this is nothing, but well, it’s what you get used to, isn’t it? 

We were going for roast beef, Yorkshire pudding (Aunt Bessie’s generosity has meant I haven’t made this since 1998), roast potatoes, carrots, peas, runner beans and cauliflower cheese.  For dessert there is a choice of apple crumble and custard, bread pudding and my newly traditional chocolate rice pudding, plus my old traditional coconut pyramids.  Much discussion was had about this menu, not all things are possible in Georgia.  Carrots and potatoes are plentiful but I forgot to buy the frozen veg in Tbilisi (you can’t buy it everywhere) so we had to make do with the little we had left in the freezer.  I found 2 cauliflowers but the price!  I paid 5 lari for 2 small cauliflowers.  That’s the equivalent of 5 kilo of potatoes or my return bus ride to Tbilisi.  Never one for economy I now think in Georgian money and not sterling and so £1 each – eek!   The cheese is another concern – the village cheese is salty rather than cheesy and I have no idea what the cheese on the market stall tastes like but I take a chance and buy a small round of cheese.  This is a big event inviting them round – like Christmas so we bite the bullet.  This is only the second time we have bought meat in Georgia. 

The butcher’s is like the old, old days kind of butcher.  I don’t recognise the cuts of meat and I ask “How much?” and point to what looks like a very large, thick steak and a man (there are 5 of them in the shop huddled round a bottle of cha-cha and a bowl of little fish) traces 12 on the glass cabinet with his finger.  I confirm that the meat is beef by making little horn gestures with my fingers and saying “Droghes” (cow – but if you don’t say it perfectly they don’t seem to be able to work it out, hence the gestures) The total is 27 lari about £10 – that is expensive! (A teacher here earns 200 lari a month)

Martin prepped the veg – 1 bucket of potatoes and carrots while I make the desserts.  The oven is temperamental and my skills uncertain and so burnt food is a serious option so I try to be careful.  Also I have no weighing scales and an irregular sized tablespoon so accuracy is but a distant dream I’m afraid.  However, I didn’t do too badly!  The coconut pyramids were a bit dry and the bottoms burnt – and it has to be said that they are less appealing visually without the glace cherry on top but the crumble was a delight as was the rice pudding a-la-choclat!  The bread pudding was too sweet but nicely spiced.  The Yorkshire Pudding – after much on-line consultation with Kim Bower (aka the cake lady) did rise on one side.

So we are ready and waiting.  ETA 2.00 but that may or may not mean anything to the Georgians.  I have also invited my new co-teachers and they arrive on the dot at the expected hour bringing delicious chocolates and home-made wine. They arrive shortly after in a mini-bus laden with bags of food and alcohol streaming through the door “Hallo Jenni-fair, Mart-een – ee” Kiss, Kiss, Kiss.  They get to work unloading their food (yes you heard right) onto the table and making themselves at home.  I stick the roast potatoes in the oven.  Hmmm.  They have brought with them cha-cha, litres of wine, soft drinks made from fresh fruit, 6 large khachapuri, rice salads, vegetable salads, 1 huge jar of pickled tomatoes and peppers, 20 hard boiled eggs, roast chickens, about 12 of those rolls that are filled with rice I think I have covered it.  “I hope they have room for my roast dinner” I say to my new co-teachers who are helping me in the kitchen.  Suddenly they pour into the kitchen and pick up the kitchen table – they need more room – and in it goes.  There is a rugby match between Russia and Georgia on at 3 and so there is a lot of fiddling and tuning of the TV to get it to the right channel.

How fantastic they just made themselves at home just happy to be together with us and laughing and drinking and eating.  The ladies (Manana, Eka (family), Julieta, Katy (my old co-teachers), Jana and Tamriko (teacher friends) and little Rusadan) had a good look around the apartment nodding approvingly – “It’s just you here? You have a lot of space!” The men, 3 husbands, my old school director and the driver Dato sat and drank and ate.

By now my expectations for my perfectly timed roast beef dinner for 16 were very low!  The food came out in bowls on the table and they tried it, but were not impressed.  They loved the meat but didn’t see the point of the gravy and weren’t really hungry enough to eat much else also they did eat a little of the vegetables that I put onto their plates so that at least they tried them.  Georgians eat from side plates with just a fork and use bread to push the food onto their forks.  So they used the Yorkshire pudding in the same way – but who am I to argue?  In the same way, because the English eat from big plates we take a bit of meat and potato and veg on the same forkful to get a blend of the flavours but they don’t do that.  So it is a whole different way of doing it.  But the reality is, they are not actually interested in trying anything new.  It’s a bit like when package holidays first opened up in Spain and Brits would go there and want to eat fish and chips (they still do haha) and not that foreign muck. 

They liked the bread pudding but were not too sure about the apple crumble or the chocolate rice pudding  both of which were proved in the eating and were delicious by my standards!

The Georgians won the rugby so much jubilation.  My old teachers told my new teachers how wonderful me and Martin are and asked if I still arrived late for the 1^st lesson. Rather embarrassingly I am late once a week at least and arrive as the lesson is starting.  When I think that in England I had an hour’s journey and would get in an hour early and now I have a 7 minute walk and get there at 9. (See I have it timed to the minute).   Julieta tells me they have now found another host family and I am to tell the co-ordinator that I want to go back to the village next semester. (Oh dear) At 6 they left as they arrived, packed their bags and streamed out with kisses and goodbyes and piled back into the mini-bus.

We had a delicious roast dinner the next evening with the leftovers (there wasn’t much left over in the end)  but we still have a week of rice pudding and crumble ahead of us!