Restaurant Trends of the Northern Caucasus

A good way to acquaint yourself with Vainakh cuisine in Grozny is Zhizhig&Galnash on V. V. Putin Prospect. Their zhizhig-galnash is good, as are their khingalsh flatbreads with pumpkin, chepalgash with tvorog and herbs, kholtmash vareniki with nettles and wild garlic, bean soup with dried meat, and their wheat flour and raisin khalva.

Shashlyk-lovers need only remember one address in Grozny – Yuzhnaya Street. 

The cooks at the street know everything about all types of meat and marinades. 

As the café description states, they serve authentic Dagestan cuisine “with a few liberties and a lot of love.” The epic amount of khinkali types and no less epic amount of chudu, alongside the “liberties” (in the form of European salads and Russian syrniki) are very reasonably priced.

That is not all, though. Each Republic in the Northern Caucasus has their own type of cheese, usually brined. A particularly interesting type is Azerbaijani shor cheese. Its taste is similar to that of salted tvorog, but it is thicker and easier to spread on lavash.  

An important cultural phenomenon in the Caucasus – feasts organised for important events, whether they be celebratory or solemn. It is not that easy to get into such an event, but now there are thematic offers for tourists. A Caucasian feast is a detailed and document ritual that developed over centuries. There is no deviating from it. 

Hundreds of guests (all of them related) and an unbelievable amount of specifically prepared food at the table are only a small portion of this age-old script. All peoples – and all events – have their own scripts, and ethnographer and historians have dedicated tome upon tome to studying this phenomenon.