Why you might ask?

Well, the answer to that is quite simple.  Why not?

Once I read this snippet on seriouseats.com  I knew why I had to go to Georgia:

"When you arrive in Tbilisi, border agents don't just stamp your passport; they hand you a bottle of wine. It's a fitting welcome to Georgia, a mountainous country sandwiched between Europe and Asia, where dinner guests are exalted as "gifts from God" and traditional feasts called supras unfold in biblical proportions, sometimes lasting for days on end.

It's easy to lose track of time at the Georgian table. On a recent visit to the country's capital, I joined some friends for a dinner that entailed a dizzying array of salads, followed by steaming vats of heady stews and braises, gallons of orange wine, and occasional forays into polyphonic harmony, a signature feature of Georgian folk music. Staggering back to my hotel at 4 a.m., stuffed and delirious, I felt like I had emerged from a culinary fever dream."

It goes on:

"So why are food lovers drawn to this faraway sliver of terrain smaller than South Carolina? For starters, it's hard to find dishes anywhere that so deftly intermingle Eastern and Western techniques: platters of soup dumplings, called khinkali, are as big an attraction in Tbilisi as they are in Shanghai, while Georgia's supple flatbreads parallel India's best naan, puffed and scorched on the inner walls of traditional clay toné ovens.

The similarities aren't coincidental. Sitting at the midpoint of ancient East–West trade routes, Georgians had the advantage of being able to cherry-pick the best of what the Greeks, Mongols, Turks, and Arabs were cooking along the Silk Road. When Russian poet Alexander Pushkin asserted that "every Georgian dish is a poem," I like to think he wasn't referring just to flavor and artful presentation but also to the coalescence of cultures on the plate.

Despite these outside influences, Georgian food remains steadfastly true to itself. Sure, meat stews may take on a sweet-tart dimension as they do in Persia, but pomegranate juice and sour fruit leather are more likely at work here, rather than the prunes and apricots thrown into the pot farther east. And while Georgian tomato salad, a mainstay of the summer table, resembles Mediterranean versions in appearance, it diverges in flavor with toasty notes from unrefined sunflower or walnut oil."

Could you ignore that tempting wee snippet?  If you want to read the full monty go here https://www.seriouseats.com/introduction-to-georgian-food-must-try-dishes 

Searching here and there I found a short tour that would take me to Georgia and to neighbouring Azerbaijan the secular but country that is squabbling with neighbouring Armenia over their mutual borders.  Azerbaijan sounds like a land of contrasts where the capital Baku offers a modern city dominated by swanky highrises, oil money and everything modern next to the down to earth older areas where some people still live the way they did years ago.  That's the bit I'm most looking forward to, with a good long soak in a hammam taking first spot soon after I arrive.

The cuisine is rated highly as well so I can see me coming home in the shape of a ball rather than a little rounded when I leave.  This would tempt anyone:

Apart from food, my passion, in the few days of my tour I will enjoy learning about the culture of both countries, their religions - Georgia mainly Christian, Azerbaijan mainly Moslem - both Sunni and Shiite happily co-existing, the vastly different architectures, languages (although Russian is spoken in both), traditions and ways of life today.  Watch this space to learn more.

Both countries form part of the Caucuses, an area we hear little of.  From Mr Google "The Caucasus or Caucasia, is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically been considered as a natural barrier between Eastern Europe and Western Asia.".

Caucuses done I head to Greece to catch up with my brother then a few days in my beloved Istanbul before that long journey home again.

I leave on Sunday and can't wait.

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