I started thinking about this topic after reading this fascinating article on “Assimilation Food”.  In it, the author Soleil Ho writes, “When immigrants adapt to their new surroundings, the most immediate way this happens is through the food they make: They look around at what’s available and try to make it into something they can recognize”. Of course there are issues of privilege that vary drastically between my experience as an American ex-pat in Georgia and that of a refugee in the US (to start with the low-hanging fruit: I can USA2Georgia any food that I desperately miss…with a few exceptions…the article talks about power and privilege very eloquently), but the idea really resonated with me and made me think about how I cook in Georgia versus how I cooked in the US. Some of my cooking remains definitely American, but lots of things wouldn’t taste the same if I tried again back in the US. And some don’t taste exactly like I want them too, but it’s good enough for weeknight cooking. It has also given me food for thought about another challenge faced by immigrants.

Since teaching can be exhausting, I don’t do a lot of complicated cooking. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not all cookies all the time here at Chez Cookies and the Caucasus. Despite that, most of my meals are majority home-made. Many of my go-tos in America have required some adapting to the availability of different products (or different prices…miss you avocados!). I love to read recipe blogs and look at recipes on Pinterest, but sometimes the ingredients are just not regularly obtainable in Tbilisi on a non-oligarch budget. I like to try new recipes, but that’s not what I’m talking about this time. Here are a few easy meals that I make frequently that incorporate Georgian and American elements. Like Ho writes, these are foods that “close the gap between homes”.

Baked Sweet Potato with (Red) Adjika

Frozen Pelmeni and Steamed Broccoli

Chilli with Mchadi

Tuna Melts with Sulguni

“Super Salsa” with lavash and sulguni “quesadillas”

Chicken/Quail and Rice with Tkemali

Hard Boiled Eggs with Tkemali or Svanetian Salt

Scrambled Eggs with Green Adjika, Sulguni, and sauteed onion

Grant’s “puriko” (Georgian-flavored panzanella)

Also, we make a lot of lobio and mchadi in the traditional Georgian way, and so many roasted vegetables (which are fairly universal).

Smitten Kitchen’s Quick Pasta and Chickpeas, Woks of Life’s soy scallion Shanghai Noodles (Carrefour has lots of different Asian noodles) and various sourdough recipes to use Breaderick (my sourdough starter/pet) have entered my everyday repertoire without Georgianization.

What’s your assimilation food?

…no photos, because I really need to work on my plating!