A sweet tradition from Georgia

culinary cultures — By Bob Riel on February 20, 2007 at 1:11 pm

There is a nice little essay on NPR’s This I Believe, written by a woman who has created her family’s own “Sweet Friday” tradition based on something she learned while working in the Republic of Georgia.

When I finished my work there, I brought home the traditional dolls, daggers and wine, but I also brought home Tkbili P’araskevi: Sweet Friday.

It was a tradition of our Georgian office where every Friday at 3 p.m., work would stop for a blissful half hour while we convened in the basement kitchen to feast on cake: gorgeous, fluffy delights of cream and sugar. The cook, drivers, doctors, office staff and bosses would gather to connect and relax. Then, slightly light-headed and sometimes even a little nauseated from overdoing it, we would return to our offices to wrap up business before the weekend.

My five children and I have instituted this indulgence among our neighborhood friends ever since. … My children and I fantasize about the event all week long. And then, walking home from school on Fridays we round up everyone we pass. “We are having cake today. Come by. There is coffee and milk, too.”

Mothers and children linger in the yard on nice warm days, abandoned backpacks and jackets strewn across the grass. In the winter, children squeeze two to a chair around our big kitchen table and the mothers cram into the living room.