At it again in Krakow — at a different Georgian restaurant from the other night. If you haven’t read this great New Yorker piece by Lauren Collins about Georgian cooking, run, don’t walk. It’s as unusual and as delicious as they say.

That’s not a very exciting photo, I admit, because I couldn’t position it right. Here’s a better one, taken from the viewpoint of my dining companion. Here is Self eating his first-ever Georgian pork soup dumpling (called “khinkali” in the plural):

In other culinary news from Krakow, I went today to Szambelan, a nifty little shop that sells flavored vodkas from jars. You taste what you like, then ask them to fill a bottle of the size you choose. They package it to travel:

I bought a little bottle of the plum and cherry vodka, on the bottom right. I liked the honey and black pepper vodka, but it struck me as a harder sell to the guests I’m bound to have sitting around the fire in the dead of winter.

Tomorrow I’m headed up to the thousand-year-old Benedictine abbey at Tyniec to give a couple of talks, and spend the weekend hanging out with monks and professors and students. I’m going to have to get in touch with that Georgian restaurant (Smaki Gruzji) to see if they can make a pillow-sized pork soup dumpling upon which I can lay my head, to guarantee sweet dreams.