Every week, I document another dish that impressed and satiated me during my food adventures around New York City
It’s a New Year and I thought of instead of my old tradition of starting each one out with a post about a cocktail, instead I would lean on the old resolution of eating healthier. And so, for the first Dish of the Week of the year, you’re getting a salad. Whether you like it or not.
But this is not just any salad.
Chama Mama, a Georgian restaurant (the country, not the state) with locations on both the Upper West Side and Chelsea, has a wide array of Caucasian specialities.
And we had a feast recently, working our way through the cheese breads, the dips, meat dishes (including a great chicken stew in a walnut sauce), and even the wine. It was hard to pick one dish to highlight, as usual, but the most unique and seductive for me was indeed a salad. Am I turning over a new leaf? Pun intended.
The Jonjoli is a salad with a very unique ingredient as the star. Among the greens, cucumbers, red onions, and pomegranate seeds, you’ll find the jonjoli. This is a Georgian specialty that is basically salt-fermented or pickled sprouts from the jonjoli bush which grows in the region.
The sprouts had a salty, vinegary, slightly bitter flavor that added lots of life and zest to the other ingredients. It’s all brought together with a simple sunflower oil and vinegar dressing.
It’s healthy, unique discoveries like this that I continue to hope for in 2023.
Although give me a few weeks and I’m sure I’ll be writing about the cheesy decadent khachapuri bread here. It’s irresistible. Price: $17
| CHAMA MAMA |
| 373 Amsterdam Avenue (between West 74th and West 75th Street), Upper West Side (917) 261-7430 |
| 149 West 14th Street (between Sixth and Seventh Avenue), Chelsea (646) 438-9007 |
| chamamama.com |
