Khachapuri Day at Beerfest

Apparently, Khachapuri Day happens at Beerfest every third Sunday of the month! So here's a khachapuri from our local microbrewery in Rochester. Freshly made upon order and of the same Adjarian variety like the one we had previously at Dacha. The cheese was a little different though. The ones used here was more curdy and sharp as opposed to a richer, heavier and stretchier cheese. Still very good coming fresh from the oven and worth the 20 minute wait.

Another Slavic Day at Beerfest

Apparently, this Slavic Day events happen on the first Sunday of the month so it's not such an uncommon occurrence as I believed the last time we were here.

Their fish platter has improved greatly since the last visit. More fish and it seems that they're all cured in house.

Great munching with their toasted rye while waiting for the food to arrive.

I managed to get the lamb shashlik this time round. Good stuff which was as delicious as the pork ones if not better. I liked that a lot of it was the natural flavour from the meat. The potato is missing now though.

A good time too - to toss back a couple of kvass while getting food here.

Dacha, Hollywood Road, Central

Yes we had Eastern European food in Hong Kong. Possibly the one and only Eastern European restaurant/bar in the country. Dacha's (G/F, 38-40 Hollywood Road, Central, tel : +852 2420 3555) menu as the hostess asserted, has a little from Ukrainian, Russian, Georgian, Polish and Romanian cuisine.

We were served some dark rye bread with lard.

And sipped kvas while waiting for the food. This kvas was actually very good drinking. I dare say that it was as good or even more enjoyable than the one from Beerfest. At least it was for me that I got another bottle.

The first cold starter was shuba, or also known as "herring under a fur coat". This was layered pickled herring, beetroot, carrot and potatoes with chopped eggs. Flavoured with a bit of dill and what appeared to be salmon roe. This was quite delicious.

Then came the killer khachapuri - a Georgian dish of cheese filled bread in the shape of a boat. Killer because it was very tasty and it also killed us with the portions. As a warm starter item, it could have easily fed four. According to our favourite crowdsourced internet encyclopedia, this was an Adjarian variety served with a pat of butter and raw egg. The bread appeared fresh out of the oven, was piping hot, soft and had a nice crust.

We had an order of gołąbki. It was okay. I wasn't getting a defining texture from the stuffings. The rice and the meat weren't separately identifiable and a bit of salt was in order. I thought that the one from After The Tears were tastier.

Then came what I guessed to be an Uzbekistan lamb plov - a pilaf like dish with what the menu described as "Caucasian spices". No idea what those were. The flavours were Indian/Middle Eastern-ish. Rice was a little sticky but not as much as the glutinous variety. There were delicious little chunks of charred lamb in the rice. This plate was on hindsight, a shocking kind of tasty. We were already pretty stuffed at this point and I found myself spooning mouthful after mouthful till the plate was empty.