Iberia Georgian restaurant

Iberia Georgian restaurant

The Georgian restaurant “IBERIA” in Islington 294-296 Caledonia Road, London, N1 1BA is a new addition to Georgian restaurants in London. Iberia has been open just over a year and offers many traditional Georgian dishes.

 Do not be fooled by the Spanish sounding name. Iberia is the name of a region in eastern Georgia. The restaurant has a modern interior but it is not a cold ambience, due to the unusual hand carved wooden items that include the map of Georgia. 

 The restaurant offers many traditional dishes to be sheared as well as ordered individual if desired. We were advised to order meze for two from cold vegetarian starters, which was combination of four, do not worry about the difficult names of the dishes as all dishes have a description in English. “Badrijani”- roasted Aubergine in a walnut sauce and Georgian spices with pomegranate seeds, “Pkhali”- steamed Spinach with walnuts and Georgian spices, “Lobio”- boiled red Beans with walnuts and Georgian spices and “Salad Olivie”- steamed root vegetables with hard boiled eggs dill with mayonnaise. All four dishes reminded me of my mothers cocking. 

 We have then decided to order “Imeruli Khachapuri”- this is Flat bread stuffed with Georgian cheese. Iberia offers vegetarian dishes as well as meet and fish. We where pretty full at the end of our starters, therefore we decided to shear a main course and yet again we were advised to try traditional Georgian dumplings “Khinkali”- Succulent and juicy grounded pork and beef wrapped in a very light dough it was yet another amazing dish. 

 The food is generously served and the best Georgian food that I have been served in London. Service was very welcoming and attentive. The staff were all very friendly and happy to explain the different dishes for people who have not yet become acquainted with Georgian food.

 Prices are moderate, starters starting from £4.50 to £7.00 and main courses start from £8.50 to £16.00, do not be put off by these prices as they are average prices for London’s dinning. Iberia offers many of Georgian wines prices are from £13.00 a bottle to £37.00. All an all I would like to rate Iberia 4 out of 5 stars.                             

Gorbachev celebrates his 80th birthday in London

Mikhail Gorbachev 80^th Birthday 

The formers soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev celebrated his 80th birthday on the 30th March with his friends and family at London's Royal Albert Hall. This celebration took place in London because it was easer to gather his preferred guests from all over the world in London then elsewhere.

Mikhail Gorbachev was the president of the USSR from 1988 to 1991. He was born 2 March 1931. 

On his 80^th birthday, for which the celebration was held at the Royal Albert Hall and sponsored by the Gorbachev Foundation which was founded by Mr. Gorbachev and his daughter Irina to help children suffering from leukemia, amongst other sponsors likes: Vertu, Faberge and Christie’s. There were many celebrities invited to raise funds. This event was primarily to celebrate Mr. Gorbachev’s birthday as well as to raise funds for the trust and to raise awareness of the trusts work. The funds raised will be divided between the British fund MacMillan Cancer Support and the Saint Petersburg Institute of Children Hematology and Transplantation behalf of Raisa Gorbachev.

Red carpet and the celebrities started arriving in style, amongst the celebrities were Dame Shirley Bassey, Sharon Stone, Kevin Spacey and ex Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. There was one question raised over and over again throughout the evening, why Mr. Gorbachev decided to celebrate his 80^th in London and not in Moscow? First of all there were a lot of celebrations held in the name of Gorbachev in Moscow and secondly it was ease to bring all VIP guest to London.

 It seemed that the hero of the day Mr. Gorbachev was a little embarrassed by such a reception. However, he took himself in hand and thanked friends. "I never thought I would live to 80 years, but now I have to say with confidence that I want to see you on the 90^th birthday! - Admitted by Mikhail Gorbachev.

 This amazing event carried on in a luxury Royal Garden Hotel on High street Kensington where many of guest including Mr. Gorbachev’s grand daughters and others raised glasses of champagne once more to wish Mikhail Gorbachev Happy Birthday.

     

                      

            

Belarus riot for Human rights

Belarus is a country that we do not hear of very often, after the Soviet Union collapsed Belarus declared its independence on 25 August 1991. Belarus is located in Eastern Europe see where on the map and since 1994 Aleksander Lukashenko has been the countries president. Recently president Lukashenko made it into the British tabloids. "The dictator in the dock" see full story. Belarus seems to be another country where freedom of speech of journalists are closely monitored by the government, if they do not obey the rules they can bee jailed for up to 15 years. People of Belarus have been treated inhumanely in prisons, they were tortured and made to sleep standing, all this happened because they were accused of incitement to protest read full story. Is that what one calls democracy? This is one of the questions that Mr Lukashenko will be answering soon. Mr Lukashenko will also have to answer to allegations of torture and false imprisonment of people involved in opposition to his government. The last link gives details of two accounts of treatment that could only be described as inhumane. When will Belarus and other former Soviet Union countries behave in an acceptable and democratic manner?      

Georgian born becoming a star in the United Kingdom 2

David Koma is another Georgian born star who has made it into the news tabloids of the United Kingdom. read full story. David Koma was born in Georgia and in 1996 he moved to Saint Petersburg where he studied at the St Petersburg State Academy of Arts and Industry for a BA Fashion Design. He moved to London in 2003. David graduated in 2009 with a distinction MA Fashion degree from Central Saint Martins college of art. David's graduation collection has won Harrods Design Award and landed him a lot of press coverage. see more detailed information . Clothes designed by David have been worn by many celebrities such as Cheryl Cole, Rihanna  and Kylie Minogue. Recently I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the London Fashion Week, which was held at Somerset House in central London to view David Koma's new Autumn/Winter 2011 collection see collection gallery . This collection was yet another sensational creation of David's. Every collection that David has introduced has been innovative, he has now perfected his unique style. Even though each collection has had it's own themes the 2011 Autumn/Winter collection has a theme of polka-dots, this has come form a Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. David's interpretation has brought the Japanese to combine with his unique style to result in a collection that is neither Japanese or European. He always works to achieve flattering, feminine designs and all he works on has definite individuality all his own.             

Georgian born becoming a star in the United Kingdom 1

Many Georgian born people come to United Kingdom to better their lives, some even make it  into the tabloids. like the Singer and songwriter Katie Melua and the fashion designer David Koma to name just two. Katie Melua  released her first album in 2003 named "Call of the Search" and her life as an artist had started, Katie has became the best selling female artist See this link. She has now released her forth album having also had success with her second album "Piece by piece" and her third album "Pictures". Recently we have not seen Katie as much as we used to and that is because she had a breakdown see full story  . Katie is back and she has number of concerts lined up for all over Europe and United Kingdom. I was lucky enough to be giving pair of tickets to see Katie in a intimate concert at the Cafe De Pari in London last June, and i have to say that it was truly amazing evening. Katie often does few intimate concerts to work on material for an upcoming world tour and the concert that i went to was just such an evening. Katie's performance was completely  without floss even though she told us it was a first life performance for a long time. Week also ago she has been interviewed by Sir Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2 Watch the interview. I am sure she will make a great come back, and also we will see more Georgian people becoming successful having immigrated to the United Kingdom.

Living as a journalist in Russia

I am a Georgian in London, for some of you who do not know where Georgia is, it is located on the this map.  Until 1989 Georgia was part of the USSR amongst other countries such as the Baltic states, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and many more. I wonder why people of former USSR countries are immigrating to the western countries? Is it because they are suppressed in some way? maybe their sexual orientation or there is a fear of the lack of free speech? see this link. BBC new writes "Russian journalists run the risk of attack or even murder if they delve too deeply into sensitive subjects such as corruption, orginsed crime or rights abuses. Russia is a regular target for criticism and condemnation from media frrdom watchdogs." A recent example of the lack of freedom of speech is what happen to British Moscow correspondent Luck Harding of The Guardian