A happy meal in Phali Hinkali (Georgia) restaurant, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Noticed quite many restaurants showing "Georgia".  At first, I wondered if that's some common name of specific food of Russia, and even thought about the State Georgia of U.S. (but of course it's almost a zero possibility).  So I googled and found out that was what I often watched on local travel programs about Caucasia for Armenia (亞美尼亞), Azerbajian (亞塞拜疆).  These country names in Cantonese sound very literal and cultural to me.  So this is 格魯吉亞 Georgia.  Those beautiful scenery as I watched on the TV flipped in my mind.  This restaurant was so crowded that I made a booking for the next day.

So we ordered a pickled platter, Borsch soup, grilled pork on crepe, beef stew and their house signature dumplings.  The waitress was so nice to recommend us to try their mixed fruit drinks.  The hot one in pot is cranberry, goosenberry and barley tea and the cold one is raspberry green apple lemonade.  Good to have these 2 drinks to go with the meal.  On the pickled platter, there are garlic, jalapeno, beetroot, cucumbe, red cabbage and I guess it's cow sip flower on the right bottom.  Those were marinated in various vinegar, salt and sugar.  So it didn't taste the same.  The soup was nice though the beef was a bit too chewy.  Think it might be too early for us to visit and it's not shimmered enough.  The grilled pork on crepe was so aromatic with light herb and salt.  The beef stew wasn't too impressive though it's not bad.  The highlight was the dumplings.  You can order 2, 4, 6, and so on.  So I ordered 6 as I wanted to save room for dessert.  When it was served on the table, the dumpling size was almost 3 times bigger than what we usually have.  So RUB45 (HKD5.5) for one dumpling at this giant size was the cheapest but a very delicious one.  I chose beef/pork filling and it's with some.chopped parsley and celery inside. It was so nice to have this freshly made dumpling in this cold weather and yet it was so hearty and homey.  The waiter told us how to eat it.  Hold the top of dumpling and eat it upside down so as not to let the juice spill out.  What a nice way to have that "handle" of dumpling.   The whole meal including drinks was just about RUB3,000 (HK$350).