What to eat in Batumi

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• What else should the list cover? Desserts and pastriesNon-alcoholic drinksLocal alcohol

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1. Eat Adjarian khachapuri

   A dough boat of molten sulguni with a raw yolk and a knob of butter stirred into the hot filling at the table. You tear off the ends and dip.

   Stir it immediately while hot or the yolk sets. One boat is built for two, and the size here is larger than in Tbilisi.

2. Try borano

   Young sulguni melted in a great deal of clarified butter into a stretchy mass, served in a clay pan. Eaten with mchadi corn bread.

   The butter separates and rises, which is correct, and the bread is dipped in it. It is very rich: one pan serves a group.

3. Try sinori

   Strips of thin lavash mixed with fresh nadugi curd and covered in clarified butter, then baked until browned. An Adjarian dish absent from the rest of Georgia.

   Nadugi is a fresh unsalted whey cheese, soft and neutral. It is served hot and eaten by hand, pulling the layers apart.

4. Try achma

   A layered pie of boiled pasta sheets with cheese between them, drenched in butter and baked. It resembles lasagne and is cut into squares.

   There should be many thin layers. It is eaten hot; cold, achma stiffens and loses its stretch.

5. Eat Black Sea fish

   Red mullet, horse mackerel, flounder and anchovy, fried whole or grilled with lemon and herbs. The fish market runs in the morning with kitchens next door.

   The season runs autumn to spring; in summer there is less fish and it is smaller. Agree the price per kilo and for cooking before it leaves the counter.

6. Try chirbuli

   Eggs baked in a sauce of tomato and walnut with coriander and spices. An Adjarian breakfast served in a clay pan.

   The walnut sauce is the one trace of the eastern Georgian tradition in this Adjarian breakfast. It is eaten with corn mchadi rather than bread.

7. Try mchadi and elarji

   Mchadi is a corn flatbread cooked on a dry pan; elarji is corn porridge worked with sulguni until it stretches. Both go with meat and with lobio.

   Elarji stretches an arm's length in strands, which shows the cheese ratio is right. Mchadi is served hot and dipped into lobio.

8. Eat khinkali

   Large dumplings with broth inside, picked up by the topknot. In Adjara they are often made with cheese or mushrooms as well as meat.

   The knots stay on the plate and serve as the tally. You order from five upwards and dust them with black pepper.

9. Try lobio and pkhali

   Red beans in a clay pot with coriander and spices, and herb pastes with walnut. Plant-based dishes that appear on every menu here.

   Mchadi and pickled jonjoli are essential with lobio. Pkhali is ordered as an assortment of three or four kinds.

10. Try local citrus

    Tangerines, feijoa, persimmon and lemons growing in the courtyards here. Tangerine and feijoa season runs November to January.

    Feijoa is eaten with a spoon from the half or blended raw with sugar as a jam. Local tangerines are small and sourer than imports, which is the point.

11. Try pelamushi and churchkhela Desserts and pastries

    Pelamushi is a grape juice pudding set with corn flour; churchkhela is nuts on a thread dipped in the same juice. Neither has added sugar.

    Both belong to autumn and the grape harvest, when they are freshest. Fresh churchkhela is soft; rock hard means last season.

12. Try kaimaghi and matsoni Desserts and pastries

    Thick kaimaghi cream with honey and sour matsoni: the dairy line of the Adjarian table. Both are sold at the market in glass jars.

    Kaimaghi is dense, almost like butter, and eaten by the spoon with bread. Matsoni is thicker than kefir and balances the richer dishes.

13. Drink local tea Non-alcoholic drinks

    Adjara and neighbouring Guria are a historic tea-growing zone, and the plantations are working again. The tea is drunk unsweetened, with jam or honey.

    Local black tea is softer than Ceylon with a herbal note. It is sold loose at the market and at the plantations near Ozurgeti.

14. Try qvevri wine Local alcohol

    Wine fermented in buried clay vessels together with the skins: amber and tannic. The method is over two thousand years old and UNESCO-listed.

    Rkatsiteli is the easiest start: amber but not the most tannic. Look for qvevri on the list; industrial wine is made differently.

15. Try chacha Local alcohol

    A strong grape spirit from the pomace, drunk in small glasses with food. Homemade versions vary widely in strength.

    Good chacha smells of grapes rather than alcohol. Homemade chacha sold at markets in old lemonade bottles is unpredictable.