Dezerter Bazaar

This is where Tbilisi actually buys its food. Dezerter Bazaar sits next to the central railway station, and the name has stuck since the 1920s, when soldiers coming back from the front sold weapons, greatcoats and boots here to pay their way home.

Today it is first and foremost a food market, and the whole country converges on it. Walking the rows you pass:

• the cheese line — sulguni, imeruli, guda cheese from the mountains, and the fermented dambalkhacho

• spice tables: khmeli suneli, blue fenugreek, coriander seed, marigold known here as Imeretian saffron

• churchkhela, fruit leather, walnuts, dried fruit and honey

• herbs by the armful, tarragon, pickles, tkemali plum sauce and ajika

• meat and poultry rows, where live chickens are also sold

Prices are by the kilo and well below city shops. You will be handed things to taste; that is normal, and refusing along the cheese row is close to rude. Bargaining is possible, though the haggling here is far less aggressive than at the flea market.

This is not a tidied-up market built for visitors. The floors are wet, the smells are strong, the aisles are narrow and everyone is shouting. That is exactly why it is worth an hour: you will learn more about Georgian cooking here than in five restaurants.

The market follows the season closely, which is a good reason to come twice. Spring is herbs, nettles and pickled jonjoli buds; July and August are tomatoes, peaches and aubergines; September and October bring grapes, walnuts and the churchkhela-boiling season; winter is tangerines from Adjara and long rows of onions. Outside the covered halls, on the pavement, villagers sell only what they grew themselves — often three or four items laid out on a sheet of plastic, and usually the best produce in the market.