Kakheti Brno Review
There’s a particular kind of joy that comes from being introduced to a cuisine by someone who grew up on it. That’s exactly how my evening at Kakheti Brno came about. My colleague from our cohort, who’s originally from Georgia, suggested that we try his home country’s food and helped us pick out the delicacies himself. What followed was a memorable meal to end the second week of our semester at Masarykova University.
I ordered an limonati to start off with, Georgia’s traditional fruit soda. It was very light and floral, which was a perfect palate opener for the courses ahead.
The table filled up fast with pkhall, Georgia’s beloved walnut-paste vegetable spread. We had tried both the beetroot ( ch’ark’hlls pkhall) and spinach (ispanakhis pkhall), which had an earthy and rich flavor. The star of the night for me was the badrijani nigvit, which is eggplant rolled around a garlicky walnut-cheese paste, grilled, and finished with a scatter of pomegranate seeds.
Georgia takes its bread seriously and we now know why. Our group sampled three different varieties. Khachapuri, the classic cheese-stuffed bread is pizza like in shape, but entirely something different. The Kubdari is a bread packed with spiced, peppery veal that brought heat and depth. The showstopper was a boat shaped bread that had molten cheese, a raw egg yolk, and a pat of butter. This all is meant to be stirred together and torn apart for dipping.
No Georgian meal is complete without khinkall, the twisted, pleated dumplings you eat by hand. We sampled three different fillings, cheese, lamb, and pork and lamb blend. They were well seasoned with broth that you drink after the first bite, unless you want a mess bursting out.
What made this dinner special wasn’t just the food, it was the company. Sharing a table with class mates from different cultures, backgrounds, and walks of life, raising a toast between every course, trading stories as new dishes arrived. Food has this way of dissolving distance between people. By the end of the night, we weren’t just classmates who happened to share a meal, we felt like an extended family, far away from the comforts of home.
If you’re ever in Brno and want to experience an authentic introduction to Georgian cuisine, Kakheti is where to start. Pull up a chair, order too much food, and bring people you want to know better. At the end of the day, a full table and good company is the closest thing to home you can find, even thousands of miles away from it.
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