Hello!
My friends and I are planning to visit Sakartvelo. One friend is celiac so he can't eat gluten. He is reluctant to join us because he is worried he will have trouble eating (he has had a bad experience in Croatia).
How hard is it to find gluten-free food in stores? Will he be able to explain he wants a gluten-free food to waiters in the restaurants?
Thanks!
Posted Jun 29, 2015, 4:06 PM UTC
A girl from US I know spent several months teaching English to children in a rural village and occasionally visiting Tbilisi. She's gluten-intolerant, but seemed to have had no problem getting by. There's a handful of Georgian dishes that satisfy the requirement, but I suggest you research them beforehand rather than trying to directly explain it to the waiters. Any large chain store in Tbilisi is also diverse enough to have at least a few gluten-free items.
Gluten can be easily avoided here.
Avoid anything that contains or looks like break, naturally. Most salads are gluten free, so they're good to go. A lot of Georgian foods use nuts instead of wheat or rye, and others can be prepared alternatively, so that widens your choice of food.
We have a lot of meat, fruit and vegetables in our food. Basically, if you watch what you eat, and ask how it was prepared, you're good.
There are many gluten free dishes in Georgian cusine. Gluten free specialty items are hard to find, but considering naturally gluten free foods are bountiful they should be ok.
I wouldnt bother trying to explain to a restaurant their special needs. I dont think they would understand. It really depends on how sensitive they are to gluten to risk the possibilty of cross contamination from other foods prepared.