History of Greek Food

Four weeks ago, we arrived back in Athens, after being gone for 3 months. This time I’ve brought  several tons of olives and cheeses, herbs, books and I managed to forget half my clothes.

What I miss while here:

The view from my sister’s kitchen window
 

 
And the view from my balcony

 
Writing under the olive tree very early [...]

What has happened to the traditional cooking knowledge? A few days ago, I found some photos from earlier this summer of the 10th Agricultural August - Land and Culrure Fair. The Fair took place at the Venetian harbour of Chania and was framed by rural and food products and few samples of popular artifacts of [...]

Here is what was served at a ‘before wedding’ party which was held in Karanou. The party was given by the groom’s family one week before the son got married. The wedding ceremony and the after wedding party (gr. glenti) were given at Athens.
The groom’s family is wealthy and the party was really crowdy, around [...]

 This place has stolen my heart.

Karanou is the village where my father was born and lived until his twelfth birthday, and where my sister and I spent a part of our childhood’s and teenagehood’s summers….  
When we were free spirits playing in the olive groves….. 
…. finding paths  in the oak forest and sharing secrets with [...]

I watched a music festival last night. Some high school students organized a three nights rock festival in Chania (Two Festival) and school groups around Greece threw their voices expressing their anxieties, aspirations and expectations. And there were some great voices, indeed.
 
Here is the cantina for the service of festival’s visitors. Orange juice and carbonated [...]

Basil, Theophrastus‘ and Dioskorides‘ ocimom (ώκιμον), lat. ocimum basilicum. The word basil comes from the Greek word vasileus (βασιλεύς)= king because it was believed to have grown above the spot where Constantine the Great and his mother Helen discovered the Holy Cross. And the King of Christians is Jesus.
The plant is originated in tropical Asia [...]

To this very day there is a habit among islanders of chewing the seeds of melons and watermelons, after the fruits’ flesh have been consumed. Until late sixties, pepitada, a Jewish Sephardic milky – looking beverage made with melon’s seeds was also familiar to Greeks Christians of Rhodes, Chania (Crete) and Thessaloniki. It is worthy of [...]