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25 February 2012
Several years ago, I spent the night before «Clean Monday», as Greeks call the first day of Lent, baking the traditional Lenten flatbread lagana with a local Athenian baker. Even though he went about his business methodically and professionally, turning out more than a thousand or so loaves, he didn’t fail to observe all the traditions of th fast. Indeed, ...
18 February 2012
The Meze platter should offer a variety of foods, textures, colors, and flavors for people to nibble on as they enjoy wine or ouzo and the company of friends. As a general rule, ouzo and tsipouro go best with seafood meze platters, while wines are a better match for cured meats and cheeses. Vegetables meze items, such as baked giant ...
9 December 2011
This article first appeared in the L.A. Times. Αthens. The pang for souvlaki comes about once a month. I am usually in the center of town when that indescribable waft—the scent of grilled meat (either pork or lamb), garlic, and oregano, coupled with the smell of warm doughy pita bread—hits me. The Greeks have a word for it: tsikna, the ...
17 November 2011
Every cuisine in the world is the sum of its parts, of its ingredients, in other words, those basic foods and flavor combinations that are the cook’s alphabet for both carrying on traditions and creating new dishes that are both authentic and contemporary. Greece is blessed with a wide gamut of basic ingredients that flourish in this perfect Mediterranean climate. ...
23 October 2011
It’s not by accident that literature is filled with references to the tricks unethical fishmongers will play. From the ancient comedy writers to Athenaeus to Shakespeare, the fishmonger is derided for everything from spraying fish with water to make it look fresh to overcharging for his goods. Not much has changed today. So how, exactly can you know if the ...
11 October 2011
The Meze platter should offer a variety of foods, textures, colors, and flavors for people to nibble on as they enjoy wine or ouzo and the company of friends. As a general rule, ouzo and tsipouro go best with seafood meze platters, while wines are a better match for cured meats and cheeses. Vegetables meze items, such as baked giant ...
10 October 2011
This article first appeared in the L.A. Times in March, 2003. Seduced by Souvlaki Diane Kochilas Αthens. The pang for souvlaki comes about once a month. I am usually in the center of town when that indescribable waft—the scent of grilled meat (either pork or lamb), garlic, and oregano, coupled with the smell of warm doughy pita bread—hits me. The ...
10 October 2011
Greece is fortunate to have one of the best climates in the world, one in which ample sunshine helps produce some of the tastiest fruits and vegetables. Because raw ingredients—from garden to grove to field to sea—are delicious in their own right in Greece, Greek cooking has evolved in such a way so that there is an innate respect for ...
10 October 2011
It was a driving trek of heroic proportions up the dirt road from Rethymnon, the historic seaside fort city on the northern coast, to the tiny village of Potamous, on one of those dusty Greek-island dirt roads that are less daunting than they seem but nonetheless make every passenger but the driver look like they just stepped off a cyclone. ...
10 October 2011
No other ingredient in the Greek larder affords the breadth of possibilities that fava does. Fava, to a Greek, is a bean puree. Its name refers to the end result—the mashed beans—and has nothing to do with what Americans and Italians know as fava, the broad bean. In Greece, most fava is prepared with yellow split peas. It is ...