Forget splitting the atom or realising that the Earth wasn’t flat – who was the bright spark that invented bread? We all know about Einstein and Fleming and there are those who think that Steve Jobs and Tim Berners-Lee changed the development of Mankind – but who invented bread? I mean where would we be…
All Fired Up – Sheftaliés
For those who have never known a British summer, the experience can be a bit of a curiosity. The first thing to take on board is that the weather is totally, but TOTALLY unpredictable. So forget 4-6 months of more or less warm, balmy days, and recalibrate your expectations to temperatures that can, and I’m…
City Lights – food and friendship in Istanbul.
Going to Istanbul with your Greek head on, you fast become aware that you are in a city of unknown knowns. Creeping up on you when you are least expecting it, you suddenly realise that, either by the look of something or its name, you know exactly what you are dealing with. From the name…
Zoned Out – Zonars – a legend lost
While learning Greek, about a million years ago, my rather innovative teacher, Dimitris, ditched the standard translation texts – they were dreadfully turgid – and instead he gave me chunks of fiction to render into my faltering Greek. Usually they were excerpts from Agatha Christie ‘whodunnits’ – I blame Dimitri for my ongoing obsession with…
All Messed Up – Tourlou Tourlou
Some while back there was an advert on Greek TV for a brand of feta cheese. It showed a traditional village home with a man eyeing up a tray of freshly cooked stuffed vegetables – he calls out to his wife to see if he can have some. A rather old-fashioned, elderly lady comes into…
Not Woke – Just Fasting. Cheat’s Chickpeas – Revithátha Efkoli
Apologies, just in case anyone has noticed, for my almost Trappist silence over the last few months. It’s not because I have lost interest in blogging, simply I have spent the second half of 2018 ‘on the move’. Kouzina was, for most of that time, literally without a kouzina (it’s Greek for kitchen). It’s all…
Blog-Pod – Arakás me Patátes – Braised Peas With Potatoes
In Greece, a country where vegetable recipes rule supreme, you rarely hear food described as ‘vegetarian’. The naming of someone as a hortofágos (vegetarian) is a relatively modern phenomenon, despite the fact that traditionally Greeks, especially in villages and islands, ate very little meat. Regular meat-eating came with growing urbanisation and relative affluence. But explaining…
Myth, Memory and a Good Tomato Sauce
You know how it is, you’re flicking through an old recipe book, a piece of paper drops out and it’s like looking through a window into the past. There it was, stuffed into the back of my ‘Good Housekeeping Cookery Book’, a list of our favourites dishes. Just married, my husband, Mihalis, and I had…
Condensed Soup Not Required – Arnáki Frikasé
It was late 1975 and I was on a mission to impress my Greek boyfriend by learning how to cook some of his national dishes. This wasn’t easy then, apart from the dearth of some vital ingredients, there was really only one cookbook available and also, at that point, I had never been to Greece. …
My Mongrel Christmas Recipe – Mince Pies with Kourambié Pastry
As a Gree-nglish family we have become accustomed to segue fairly seamlessly between Greek and English culture. There is a remarkably even-handed choice between food, customs and idiosyncrasies of both countries. Favourite family meals could be moussaká or equally meat and potato pie; our kettle is absolutely indispensable but we never use a washing-up bowl. My…