History of Greek Food

In the recent years there is an annual festival for almost every food, be it chestnuts, strawberries, cherries, pies, anchovies, snails etc.
Villages and towns promote the food festivals as a celebration of their local products and culinary tradition, both worth sharing with a wider audience. Τhe truth is that those celebrations have more to do with [...]

When the international demand for black raisins- the major export product of Greece- failed (1893), Greek government bought surplus raisins to produce cheap alcohol, alcoholic beverages and syrup (stafidine). Thus, raisins started to play a major role in alcoholic industry and industrial manufacturing of confectionery products.  Moreover, in 1936   the use of sugar was prohibited in confectionery industry by law. Though carob syrup [...]

…They are  charming, evergreen trees in the garden with  juicy fruits whose delicate pear-like flavor certainly deserve our attention. 

 
 The golden yellow fruits come into the Greek markets along with strawberries.  The fully ripe peeled loquats are eaten fresh  but Cretans also serve them along with graviera cheese and ice-cold tsikoudia, the local grape-based spirit.
And they  make delicious compote, a  light sophisticated dessert on their own. …
Seeds don’t go [...]

“We will not allow it to be said again ‘Regretfully, we are bankrupt’. I will give, we will give our all in order to save the country,” prime minister George Papandreou said, referring  to the phrase “Regretfully, we are bankrupt” with which  prime minister Harilaos Trikoupis had announced in 1893  that the Greek government was unable  to cover the repayment of its debts. Greece [...]

Community… Latin…noun… from communis, meaning fellowship, community of relationships or feelings.  
(The compact edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, 1971)    
 

The urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg  in his Great Good Place talks about the gathering places where the members of a community hang out for the pleasure of good company and conversation.  What he calls great good place is the local bar, bistro, tavern, café, [...]

May…
…Persefone left the thick gloom of Hades to go up to the plains of her beloved land,  blessing the earth with life.
May…
 Zafiris,* a young boy, lies down pretending  to be dead and the girls adorn him with flowers and leaves singing mourning songs. Before the last verse the boy raises…
….ressurection,
Adonis, Attis, Dionysus are still here….
 
May…
 

May day on Corfu: attributed to Charalambos Pachis
A large branch of cypress, [...]