Georgia’s cuisine ranked 4th in Europe

Georgia's unique food and drink is becoming more known to the Western world after a United States-based online lifestyle magazine placed Georgia high on a list ranking European countries by their indigenous cuisines.

With its "unique and virtues of national food" Georgia ranked fourth among the 48 European cuisines following Italy, France and Spain in the Thrillist's list.

Travel journalists Kevin Alexander and Liz said Georgian cuisine sat in the middle of the ancient spice route between Europe and the Middle East and Asia.

So the country’s dishes are imbued with an incredibly rich and unique use of herbs and spices, like cilantro and dried marigold, that are used in combinations not seen in the other individual regions and are layered for bold but balanced dishes," the authors said.

They named Georgian Khachapuri, a cheese bread, as the ‘pinch-hitter’ of Georgia's national dishes.

It’s so popular that the country’s trying to trademark it so places like Panera don’t steal it when they realize HOW MUCH BETTER THE BREAD BOWL CAN BE," they said.