Thomas Engstrom: Georgia's Beauty Can be Drunk and Eaten

Famous Swedish writers Margit Richert and Thomas Engström recently moved to Tbilisi after having traveled in Georgia, Poland and Ukraine.

Engström, who works as journalist as well, considers these countries a personal discovery.

When Engström used to travel in Berlin, London or Paris, he knew what to expect, but in Odessa, Batumi, Warsaw and Lviv he discovered something extraordinary.

In an article published by The Clarion, a Civil.ge project, Engström describes his attraction to Georgia.

“In Georgia, this is all about the wine and food. There is a culinary culture here that is both deep and rich. If you haven’t tasted a cold, dry Georgian wine, bought by the 10 liter-jug in a market on a crisp Tbilisi morning, you have no business talking about wine. If you haven’t tried seasoning a steak with Svanetian salt, keep quiet about food. Georgia is one of the most beautiful places on the face of the Earth – and somehow, by the strange magic of creation, craft and ecology, this is something you can actually taste. Beauty, it seems, can be drunk and eaten.”

“When making your country known to the world, you should start with your best foot forward. The rest – a wonderful hospitality which spills over into a great business climate for newcomers, a serious desire to join with other open, democratic societies – is for college professors and intellectuals. They’ll come around anyway. But the average westerner will need to have his curiosity roused by something more palatable,” Engström wrote.

“Show me what you manufacture, and I will start taking you seriously,” Thomas Engström

Nina Ioseliani