Athens Olympics 2004: let the games begin!

[Gifted Gourmet]

an article on Greek foods and the Olympics

The Olympics return to their roots next week, as Athens plays host to the athletes more than 2,700 years after the words "Let the Games begin" were first uttered in ancient Greece in 776BC. So what better time than now to celebrate Greek food? The book entitled The Real Greek is all about authentic Greek food: simple foods from the mountains, seafood from the islands, slow-cooked meats and sunny Mediterranean flavours. Luckily for Kyriakou, the majority of his clientele were open-minded about the menu and the success of his flagship restaurant led to the launch of the Souvlaki and Bar in Clerkenwell, UK.

So my question for you today is simply this:

what is your very favorite Greek dish?

where did you first experience it?

and do you prepare it at home?

[Jason Perlow]

Moussakka. Without a doubt.

I first experienced it at a Greek (actually Turkish) restaurant called Shish Kebab in Port Washington, NY, probably 20 years ago.

There's something about that combination of bechemel, eggplant, beef, potato and mediterranean spices that really makes it almost an encapsulation of the whole Greek food experience.

Rachel makes a really good one, but it requires prodding to get her to make it. She also doesn't like to put potatoes in it but I think its essential.

I'm also a tomato sauce type of guy... some people think that this isn't authentic and I get strange looks when I ask for it on the side at some places, but I really think it adds to the dish.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Souvlaki is one of my favorite Greek foods ... maybe cause I think of it as a Greek "hamburger" ... a meat of some sort, beef or perhaps lamb, on a giant vertical rotisserie ....... slicing off the meat as it becomes done ... on a round pita bread with lettuce, tomato, onions, and tzatziki, a cucumber-yogurt-garlic kind of dressing ... perhaps a few kalamatas ... my idea of marvelously Greek cuisine!

[Busboy]

Souvlaki is one of my favorite Greek foods ...  maybe cause I think of it as a Greek "hamburger" ... a meat of some sort, beef or perhaps lamb, on a giant vertical rotisserie  .......  slicing off the meat as it becomes done ... on a round pita bread with lettuce, tomato, onions, and tzatziki, a cucumber-yogurt-garlic kind of dressing ... perhaps a few kalamatas ...  my idea of marvelously Greek cuisine! 

Hoping to do a little reporting on the State of the Souvlaki from Athens this month, but have been too busy eating with respectable people at respectable places to get down with the low-brow chow so far. On the list: a place near my hotel I spotted last night named "πιτα παν" which -- if my tenuous ability to transliterate Greek had not been mortally wounded by a half-bottle of Macedonian red -- I was able to translate as "Pita Pan" .

Edited August 5, 2004 by Busboy (log)

[theakston]

So my question for you today is simply this:

what is your very favorite Greek dish?

where did you first experience it?

and do you prepare it at home?

-grilled Octopus

-Naoussa on Paros island

- tried but it's difficult a) to get the fresh product b) to dry it properly

like this:

[Gifted Gourmet]

Truly delighted with this photograph, theakston!! It really "grabbed" my attention! and now for a little "squid pro quo" for you:

A very big Thank you for offering it to us here at eG!

Edited August 5, 2004 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[jhlurie]

This picture must not be from Athens, because apparently they have a huge problem with Wild Dogs roaming the streets. They'd eat those suckers in the picture right up.

Er, actually reading that article, the dogs appear to have been, um... dealt with. Yuck. I wonder then, what they did with all of the Prostitutes also roaming the streets.

Hey, look... an article about the food AT the Olympics. The name "Aramark" connected to it is kind of scary, but apparently they've had the lock on the franchise for decades.

Also, for those who care, here's the NY Times on Keeping Kosher at the Olympics.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Well, bless my baklava, Jon, you are a virtual well of information on the upcoming Athens festivities ... yep, Aramark was deeply entrenched when the Olympics were here in Atlanta recently .. and I loved the article in the NYT on the kosher food preparations ...

[jhlurie]

Because we know how much they just gosh darn care, McDonalds is also "there" for our noble athletes... How big of them. Perfect food to load up on before you run that Marathon, you know.

[tanabutler]

My favorites are spanakopita (I love working with phyllo), moussaka (I just found out how easy and fun it is to make bechamel sauce), souvlaki with that tangy tsatsiki sauce (yum), dolmades, and avgolemono soup. And I'll eat feta and eggplant in anything.

[lala]

My introduction to Greek food was when I was four, in Greece. I remember staying up late (for a little American kid), and having dinner on a restaurant patio while looking up at the Acropolis. Damn, but I Loved those fabulous round, bagel-like sesame breads sold on any street corner!

On Mikonos, where we stayed for a few weeks, we were minor celebrities - it was the 60's and the tourist glut hadn't hit yet, so we were a novelty. The local fishermen loved to get my brother and me to eat all the 'wierd' stuff that 'Americans' wouldn't eat, starting with octopus. We loved the traditional Greek way of the customer going into the kitchen to see what was cooking, and select their dinner by what looked good to them.

[JPW]

I loved Greek food since I was first introduced to it at a little place I worked at on St. Thomas USVI called Zorba's. The owner was a greek guy from Chicago.

I've got to say that my favorites have more to do with ingredients than the particular dishes they are used in. Yogurt, lemon, oregano, mint, olives, etc.

The various dips are my favorite expression of Greek flavor - hummos, taramasalata, tzatziki, etc.

The nice thing about Greek food is that it is incredibly easy to make at home.

Edited August 5, 2004 by JPW (log)

[Rachel Perlow]

an article on Greek foods and the Olympics

The Olympics return to their roots next week, as Athens plays host to the athletes more than 2,700 years after the words "Let the Games begin" were first uttered in ancient Greece in 776BC. So what better time than now to celebrate Greek food? The book entitled The Real Greek is all about authentic Greek food: simple foods from the mountains, seafood from the islands, slow-cooked meats and sunny Mediterranean flavours. Luckily for Kyriakou, the majority of his clientele were open-minded about the menu and the success of his flagship restaurant led to the launch of the Souvlaki and Bar in Clerkenwell, UK.

Real Greek Food by Theodore Kyriakou

[IrishCream]

I was so impressed by the Greek food I sampled while there in May that I started a blog. You have to look at the archives to find Greece because I am now on to Peru. I have pictures of Greek traditional baking, octopus beating, lots of pies, and so on.

Oh, and I brought Greek seeds home with me and now have blooming tomatoes and small cukes in my garden.

Hungry Mouth

[Gifted Gourmet]

Perfect food to load up on before you run that Marathon, you know.

this is more interesting by far than McDonald's ...

At the Olympic Village, meals will be prepared for approximately 22,000 customers on a 24-hour basis. 50,000 meals will be served on a daily basis from 1,500 international recipes, utilizing 100 tons of food daily and creating 55 tons of waste. Within the Olympic Village, the following supplies will be needed to prepare 6,000 meals per hour: 

55 tons of waste refers to food scraps and disposable plates, etc., I am assuming ...

[Busboy]

I have not yet been to the Olympic Village, but I hope the food there is better than that at the organizing committee's headquarters cafeteria. Imagine a public school cafeteria, only Greek: steam-table pasta with octopus, mass produced moussaka, pre-frozen mixed vegetables, pressed turkey in depressing gravy. Then there are the sandwiches, with carboard tomato, cheese and American mayo, or unidentifiable cured pork products (actually, those are kind of tasty).

A very nasty selection, so I usually limit myself to a Greek salad (note to self: add large capers to next homemade salad) and then -- in the honored Greek tradition -- start lining up dinner once I get back to my desk.

Edited August 6, 2004 by Busboy (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

article from USA Today

This article has a number of great Greek restaurants right here in the United States as well as references to our own Paula Wolfert .. do take a look ...

Better access to high-quality products from Greece also has allowed chefs and home cooks to be more creative.

"It's the ingredients, stupid! — that's what is bringing Greek food upscale," says Paula Wolfert, author of seven books on Mediterranean cooking, including the recent The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen (Wiley; $34.95). "We're now getting the good olives, not just the kalamatas. The olive oil is of incredible quality. We're getting real Greek oregano. Look at the fish and wines they're bringing in! Once you have the ingredients ... it expands your repertoire."

[marlena spieler]

I fell in love with greek food when i lived on the island of crete, many moons ago. i've been awash in olive oil ever since.

anyhow, for a taste of a agro-tourismo week in zakynthos, my column this week is about exactly that:

The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGL080CVD1.DTL

the recipes include a yummy homemade cheese that is hung from pillowcases all over the island for about 5 months of the year (alas they cut that out of the article!), and also a dish of peas and eggs.

The agro-tourismo week puts you soooo in touch with tradtitional foodways and authentic flavours and sustainable agriculture. its wonderful. Sotiris kitrilakis organizes these weeks (zakynthos is his home) several times a year. In real life he is one of the people who has brought the true good ingredients of Greece to America, first with pelloponnese olive oil etc and now with mount vikos cheeses. if you are eating really good cheese in america, it was probably sourced and imported by sotiris.

you can reach their website for these agro-tourist weeks--the next one is next autumn and its all about olives, of course! info@zante-feast.com or you can reach them via my website as I have linked with them. Paula Wolfert is also a big fan of Sotiris and his passion for good greek products.

[marlena spieler]

ooops, i meant to add:

website is:

www.zante-feast.com

[hillvalley]

I have not yet been to the Olympic Village, but I hope the food there is better than that at the organizing committee's headquarters cafeteria. Imagine a public school cafeteria, only Greek: steam-table pasta with octopus, mass produced moussaka, pre-frozen mixed vegetables, pressed turkey in depressing gravy. Then there are the sandwiches, with carboard tomato, cheese and American mayo, or unidentifiable cured pork products (actually, those are kind of tasty).

A very nasty selection, so I usually limit myself to a Greek salad (note to self: add large capers to next homemade salad) and then -- in the honored Greek tradition -- start lining up dinner once I get back to my desk.

Pictures! I want pictures! You're with the press.

Frankly, Greek cafeteria food sounds absolutely gross. I can't get the vision of old limp octopus out of my head.

What about food in the arenas? What are the concession stands serving?

One of the best meals I had in Europe was in Athens, five (gasp) summers ago. It was the last night of a 15 country in 30 days tour and I was ready to go home.

I got a recommendation from our tour guide and she sent us to one of her favorites. It was in some market, down a couple of sketchy back alleys that opened onto a beautiful little plaza.

The owners were so excited to have American tourists that they treated us royally. We got a tour of the kitchen where it took all my self control to not burst with excitement. For dinner they just started sending out food. Except for the dolmas (which I love) I have no idea what we ate, except that it was damn good. Then one of the owners came out with a small guitar like instrument and serenaded us. Mmmmm, haven't thought about that meal in a long time.

[marlena spieler]

The first time I tasted Pimms Cup was on a hot hot evening at The British Embassy in Athens, in a party in their garden. The Pimms was flowing and i was thirsty. Along with a group of other food writers, I was a guest of honor.

They managed to drink and drink and drink that refreshing Pimms Cup (oh, so delicious, i couldn't get over how refreshing!) but i was the one who ended up dancing in the fountain!

There was wonderful feta cheese and salty briney black olives like only the greeks do em! And that was good. And then there were a lot of cubes of Cheddar cheese and English sausages on sticks. They get em sent in the diplomats bag.

Afterwards we went out and ate all manner of olive oil and garlicky food. eggplant and garlic and garlic with garlic, and tomatoes with beans, and skorthalia (garlic sauce). no wonder i like the place!

actually, i love greece, even if the food is sometimes horrible--and i don't think anyone does a bad buffet as bad as a big greek hotel could, witness the report we're getting from olympia village--there is always something very deliicious to eat a walk away, a drive away, a donkey ride away.

and the wines are wonderful these days too! nytimes had a piece on their wines this week......i

yasoo!

[Gifted Gourmet]

it's all Greek to me, and everyone else apparently! NY Daily News article

In 2004, Greece is the word.

So go for the gold in entertaining this year with an Olympics-watching party featuring an array of delicious Greek dishes.

Victorious athletes in the early Olympics were awarded free meals for the rest of their lives, so nibble away as your own tribute to the Olympians.

and from Pittsburgh Live ... even cooler ideas ...

[Mabelline]

Marlena, what do they cover their pillows with during that time?

My favorites are souvlaka, spanakopita, avgolemenos, and those fancy little cookies for Easter. OOH, and the fancy breads, any skewered meats, and on and on, etc.

[viva]

One of the best meals I ever head was in Mykonos - I had flown Chicago to Frankfurt, morning layover in Frankfurt, flew Frankfurt to Athens, 2 hour wait for luggage in Athens, hour cab ride to the port breathing in diesel fumes the whole way, 3 hour boat ride, got off at the wrong island in Tinos, hour wait for the next boat, another hour to Mykonos ... by the time we got there I was in the depths of severe blood sugar crankiness!!! So we went to the nearest restaurant overlooking the water and experienced:

grape leaves stuffed with some spicy beef

tzatziki & greek bread and other miscellaneous garlicky lemony spreads

spaghetti with lobster in a spicy tomato sauce

local greek white wine that would have sucked with anything else but went perfectly with the food

a lovely waiter who continually rested his hand on my shoulder

the electricity went out on the island, so we dined by moonlight & candlelight

It was phenomenal. Ranks as one of my favorite dining experiences ever.

[marlena spieler]

Marlena, what do they cover their pillows with during that time?

My favorites are souvlaka, spanakopita, avgolemenos, and those fancy little cookies for Easter. OOH, and the fancy breads, any skewered meats, and on and on, etc.

gosh, maybelline, maybe the rich ones have two pillowcases. and maybe the rest sleep with their cheese (that would be my preference)!

seriously,

for a quickie version of pretza, for those without ready access to both fresh sheeps milk and a pillowcase, just mash up feta cheese and add in enough sheeps milk Greek yogurt to make a smoothins paste. alance flavours with a drop of lemon juice and a few grains of salt.

Spread onto a plate, and as Tassia the village baker does, drizzle the top with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle it with crushed thyme.

eat with crusty toasted whole-ish sour-ish pain levain.

yummy.

marlena