athinaeos

i would suggest my recipe: buy fresh (uncured) pork belly and cut it in 3 by 1 inch rectangles, making sure that each piece has some meat in it; if the fat is excessive, remove some of it; season with rosemary, sage, orange peel, pepper and one spoon of white wine for every piece; cover and leave in a cool place for 24 hours; grill or broil until there is a dark brown crust outside and the juices are flowing out of each piece; slice each piece on the narrow side very thinly and season with salt; serve over a bed of fresh lettuce, or steamed leeks; pair it with a good riesling

after looking at the very good pictures i began wondering whether a seafood restaurant can get any better than this! as i will be in madrid at the end of the month, i will give it a good try

i must admit that i cannot even come close to the high standard that Borat has established! thank you for sharing the experience!

"kollias" is also an excellent place! i would try to go there with someone who speaks greek in order to taste the full potential of the place enjoy!

what is your opinion about "casa d'a troya" in madrid?

i always want to ask the chef how (s)he puts a recipe together i usually succeed in restaurants where the chef speaks english - i even dared ask helena arzak when i visited the restaurant and had a fantastic piece of fresh foies with caramelised pear and mango i must admit though that i get the kick out of asking them before i order a dish whether they would be willing to prepare something that they fell like, regardless of whether it is in the menu or not, just cook it and bring it on the table - this could be because the fishmonger just dropped a basket full of good stuff, or because they had a nice dream the night before, or ... it does not work all the time, but sometimes it does and it is quite rewarding

a mother warning her daughter about men: "all pigs have the same face" (from the greek tradition)

alternatively breakfast: brioche, a great bread; Marie Antoinette wanted to feed the masses with it! it may lead to another conversation path: painting > > colors > cezanne dinner: pizza may lead to poetry > dreams > pasolini (in my mind pier paolo was a poet) enjoy!

cool as a cucumber

some associations and questions that come to mind: breakfast > croissant > french > literature (why? could be fashion) > maupassant (why? could be zola) dinner > pasta > italian > movies (why? could be cars) > fellini (why? could be de sica)

i have isolated the above as a set of evaluation criteria and will present mine with notes that identify common elements location and ambience: it is not just the decor, but the overall fell of the place - this is important for me, and has nothing to do with the luxury level of the place food concept: the mission of a dish or menu, its unique features and attributes, as they exist in the mind of the chef, and how often the concept changes and reinvents itself - this is the artistic part - going back to the original question of comparing restaurants, one has to work hard to find a consistent way to evaluate and compare food concepts - but it needs to be done, and of course varies from one person to another, wether it is a formal criterion or not execution of the dish: the food concept may be good, but the execution poor - this can be because of poor ingredients, the chef's quarrel with his wife, and so on the divinity factor: in the odd case, you may encounter divinity in the shape and texture and smell and colors and taste of a dish - it is either there or not (related to chutzpah as stated above?) service: i am looking for uniformity and consistency across the board - i prefer to have a low 8 (max 10) level that is consistent rather than a head waiter who is 10, and waiters who are 5 - therefore, here i use two criteria: average service level and service uniformity and consistency value for money: this is the commercial aspect of the experience, and is very much relevant to the country or state and city or town where the restaurant is located overall experience: i sum it all up by assigning a weighting factor to each criterion and then adding them all up - this helps me keep track of all the evaluations in a consistent way cheers

in my experience it is the overall "aura" of the table that matters, much more than the content of the questions and answers session my childhood memories include vivid recollections of the expressions of people around the dinner table and the tone of their voice but very little of what was said

it is so nice to have this "open environment" for the young ones! i have found that many times what counts for them is not so much the answer they get, as the feeling that they can securely ask whatever they want

and invariably a discussion of the terroir of the place if not also the culinary culture

i totally agree with the food-centric approach even though i cannot follow it when i am invited for dinner, and the food leaves a lot to be desired - in this case i prefer to talk about the weather i am very uncomfortable when people start talking about how fattening the foies is, and how many miles they have to run to burn the calories - total turn off!

what a powerful moving picture you have painted here! good food opens the memory gates and pictures like the one you have painted invade the dinner table along with emotions that have been unlocked by the culinary experience

sounds wonderful! even though i have not analyzed your blood yet! i could add the historical background of the recipe, the variations from region to region ...

When the chemistry of the people around the table is good, i have found that you can have any sort of conversation from the most obscure of subjects, to the most lighthearted ones.

as an old master used to say "food is feeling" what ruth describes has happened to me many times excluding the psychological - emotional explanations regarding associative memories, instinctual denials and other forms of distortions of the senses i would offer the explanation that the difference boils down to how much fun i have when i prepare a meal when i have fun, the food tastes good when i do it as a routine, it is just edible

i suggest "Varoulko" for dinner the address is Peireos 80 next to hotel Iridanos phone number (210) 5228 400 url is www.varoulko.gr but it is only in greek at the moment it has been awarded one Michelin star reservations necessary it is one of the best greek restaurants today, and you can taste modern creative greek cuisine i recommend the seafood dishes the somelier is quite good and will help you with the wine expect to spend a minimum of EYRO80 for a two course meal, dessert and glasses of wine pairing the food let me know if you need anything else regards

i gather your trip was back in 2004, busboy;things have not changed much since then; Hytra in Athens is one of the best places to go for a meal; Hania in Crete is a town of extremes, like the people; you can get the best, and right next to it experience the worst; as for the traditional taverna fare, it continues to be a star if you get it in the right place! my personal preference is to visit small tavernas in the not so hip suburbs, where the owner and chef prepares for years with very fresh ingredients the same traditional honest food at very reasonable prices; in some of these places you can find the grandmother of the chef sitting in the next table, peeling potatoes, and can spend a lot of time listening to stories and recipes cheers

having a good a meal is an act that can enhance our culture and civilization whether it is at home, or at a restaurant, a good meal (and the accompanying drinks) can become an uplifting and satisfying experience as this experience is most often one we share with other people, family, friends, other encounters, it is embellished (i hope) with one or more conversation topics what do you talk about when you have a good meal? you may answer both from a positive and a negative perspective, starting from the ideal and ending with the nightmarish topic cheers

tess, as it happens, fresh fruit and vegetables continue to taste good, yogurt is ok and in some places out of this world, the goat continues to be a problem in many places because they overcook it; it is quite an effort to make stiffado, congratulations! as for chicago, i have been to a greek restaurant once, but do not remember the name; rather unusually, it was the acropolis, or the parthenon! let me know if you need information about your next trip to greece cheers

thank you for the excelent report you have helped me put on my italian map "la pineta" and saved a minimum of EURO 275 by avoiding a visit to Mr and Mrs! in general, your review reminded me that at the end of the day, we go to a restaurant to eat good food paired with good wine and do not need all the other nonsense and when an owner, chef, or whatever forgets that, then, they are serving a different type of client

i also like mackerel (scumbri in greek) and would like to suggest a very simple way to prepare and eat it it is based on a recipe a learned from fishermen, but i have changed it slightly step 1: after cleaning the fish and removing the head and the bones you immerse the filets in very cold water (preferably with chunks of ice)for about 2 hours this procedure removes the blood from the flesh of the fish step 2: take a large shallow dish and sprinkle generously coarse sea salt - place the filets on the salt with the skin side up - add a second layer of salt and fish - when finished, cover the fish with salt - leave for 2 hours max - if the fish is small, 1 hour will do (the duration of this light curing is the critical issue in this recipe! if you leave it for longer it will become very salty and rubbery) step 3: remove the salt, clean the fish with fresh water and place in airtight glass containers with virgin olive oil - refrigerate for 2 days minimum step 4: serve the fish with the olive oil, sprinkle the flesh lightly with lemon juice step 5: eat with freshly baked white bread - dipping it in the olive oil - and accompany with a glass of ouzo! bon appetit ps kindly let me know if you like it