Row at Georgian khinkali stall in London brings home the ugliness of a faraway war

The khinkali stall became the scene of a row over the Ukraine war. Photo by Rashmee Roshan Lall

The row at the Georgian khinkali stall in London is a reminder of the ugliness of war, even a faraway one.

The circumstances were ordinary. A pop-up food stall was serving a little knot of people in the British capital. Each of us had to wait the requisite eight minutes for the khinkali-makers to boil up the dumplings, yet another well-loved Georgian food offering. There were three fillings — beef, mushroom, cheese. The khinkali-maker was busy rolling them into shape and popping them onto a board, from which his colleague plucked individual pieces, shaped like money bags, and boiled them in large pots. She was aided by a stopwatch. At £2.25 a pop, Georgia’s famous dumplings weren’t cheap. And they took time to prepare. This was not fast food, literally and metaphorically.

The number of people gathered around the khinkali stall was boosted by some Russians who stopped to chat with the stall-own…