Phil: Our time is drawing to a close--we'll be traveling up to Thessaloniki and points north tomorrow, and will be out of e-contact for the next week. We might have pix of our time with Eurydice and her family to post later. For now I just want to throw a few observations up about our experience in Greece.
Greece has always had fast food. That's what souvlaki is: meat, spiced and cut up into small chunks, cooked over a fire for fast eating. The pita sandwhich with souvlaki (or kalamaki, "a stick" I think) or yiro, is just a modern development of that. They also have American style fast food. There's Domino's and Pizza Hut in our neighborhood, and if you're desperate, there's the McDonald's down in Syndagma Square. It got smashed up last year in the demonstrations, but it was open for business again this year. And there are Greek fast food joints, Goody's and Everest, which sell a mixture of American-style burgers (which look humongous to me), and more reasonably sized pitas and sandwiches.
But here's the thing: Greeks don't eat fast food because they are in a hurry and need to get somewhere fast and can't stop for food. I think they would recoil in horror at the American habit of eating meals in your car (admit it, you've done it recently). Instead, they eat fast food when they are hanging out with friends, and want a simple bite of food without the fuss of a full meal in a taverna. Here's some evidence of this: I was in the Goody's on Deree's campus, getting a coffee, which they had to brew. While I waited, I noticed on the counter a stack of games: chess, dominoes, a board game. It struck me how odd that was. Granted this is an eating venue on campus, and so it is also a hangout place. But name one single fast food restaurant in America that would provide board games for people to lounge around playing for an hour or so. Nope. Didn't think so. Now you see why I love Greece?
Greece has always had fast food. That's what souvlaki is: meat, spiced and cut up into small chunks, cooked over a fire for fast eating. The pita sandwhich with souvlaki (or kalamaki, "a stick" I think) or yiro, is just a modern development of that. They also have American style fast food. There's Domino's and Pizza Hut in our neighborhood, and if you're desperate, there's the McDonald's down in Syndagma Square. It got smashed up last year in the demonstrations, but it was open for business again this year. And there are Greek fast food joints, Goody's and Everest, which sell a mixture of American-style burgers (which look humongous to me), and more reasonably sized pitas and sandwiches.
But here's the thing: Greeks don't eat fast food because they are in a hurry and need to get somewhere fast and can't stop for food. I think they would recoil in horror at the American habit of eating meals in your car (admit it, you've done it recently). Instead, they eat fast food when they are hanging out with friends, and want a simple bite of food without the fuss of a full meal in a taverna. Here's some evidence of this: I was in the Goody's on Deree's campus, getting a coffee, which they had to brew. While I waited, I noticed on the counter a stack of games: chess, dominoes, a board game. It struck me how odd that was. Granted this is an eating venue on campus, and so it is also a hangout place. But name one single fast food restaurant in America that would provide board games for people to lounge around playing for an hour or so. Nope. Didn't think so. Now you see why I love Greece?
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