More Food!

I won't go on about how much I love the aromotata kai xromata (smells and colors) of the laiki agora, but it is really the best thing about Greece, and that is saying a lot.  We can't help but buy more than we need, and then we eat it.  I've never eaten so much fruit in my life.  I don't like messy fruit, and I don't see the point of tasteless fruit, so I don't eat nearly as much fresh fruit as I should at home (except in smoothies),but here, I GET IT!  I eat things that drip down my chin and make my fingers sticky.  I eat fruit multiple times in a day.  If all fruit tasted like this, I'd be a fruititarian.

Laiki Agora haul

I've not eaten here yet, but I am curious!

 My habit these days is to push myself out of my comfort zone.  I try a different route home, go to a new part of the city, look for unfamiliar things in stores, look up words I don't recognize, try to speak to people I don't know, seek out museums I've not been to.  I am sure that this is a stage of acculturation, but I can't think what it might be called.  We always do this with food, and in Greece it is a slow process.  We've found some fabulous little restaurants that specialize in particular kinds of food and then we explore the edges.  Here are two from a mezedopeio we tried last week:

Tomatokeftedes:  tomato-balls.

Grilled mushrooms, but not a kind we'd ever seen before... yum!

Both were a hit -- you really can't miss in Greece.  We've also had Politiki Kouzina (Cuisine from the City... Constantiople, or Turkish-influenced food) a couple of times, and after our explorations of the differences in the spices of Rhodes, we've been seeking this out.  Politiki Kouzina seems to have cumin, more obviously middle-eastern things like hummus, falafel, tabouli, more pita than bread, and a different set of spices, the most obvious of which is cumin rather than cinnamon, a difference we'd learned about after watching the delightful film Politiki Kouzina (A Touch of Spice).

I did a Greek Food workshop with the students last week.  I had 4 stations, each of which created a different recipe, and each group of 4 made enough for 4-6 people.  We made tzaziki, melitzanasalata, tiropitas, a feta-red pepper dip and Greek salad.  Then we feasted.  Today in class we discussed our observations and they got exactly the three points I'd hoped they'd gather from the experience:

1. There is a palette of ingredients that gets used over and over.  In this case, feta, Greek yogurt, lemon, olive oil, oregano, and then summer vegetables.
2. The combinations yield a remarkable variety of tastes, but with a thread of cohesiveness.
3. The recipes are more a list of ingredients and a technique or two, but few hard-and-fast measurements. The students realized that our apartments came without measuring cups or spoons, but few recipes need them, so that is just fine.  

And finally, Greek cooking is easy and delicious!