Caucasian Cuisine

Chechnya is not regarded as a culinary paradise, and the hardships of the ongoing war have ravaged food supplies in that unfortunate region. One of Chechnya's next-door neighbors, however, has a long and rich culinary tradition. The republic of Georgia offers an unusual cuisine, its recipes colored with exotic spicing and lavish use of pomegranates, prunes, and nuts.

If you happen to live in a city with a Georgian restaurant, you are lucky. Whether or not you do, you might like to try your hand at cooking this recipe for Georgian beef ragout, brought to you on the Internet thanks to Joyce Goldstein's Back to Square One: Old-World Food in a New-World Kitchen, a cookbook by the owner of San Francisco's Square One Restaurant.

Real food lovers will want to explore The Internet Epicurean, a McKinley Internet Yellow Pages 4-star Web site, for recipes, featured menus, daily topics about food and cooking, and interactive exchanges.

For more sources of information, indexed and rated, check out McKinley's online Magellan Internet Guide.