Greek Food Images

[Corinna Dunne]

Beautiful. These look like "hamoor", a large grouper which is very common in the Middle East. I remember that wonderful "milky" quality you refer to, but didn't encounter the fat, probably because they were smaller fish. In the Gulf, hamoor is typically cooked whole or else under rice, a dish called "matchboos" (phonetic spelling). The cheek is the really special bit.

[Adam Balic]

Hey, I asked for the cheek! It was about as big as my fist. "Matchboos" sounds interesting, is it like a pilau?

[johnnyd]

There were few fish about, but by the time I had finished cracking open sea urchins and turning over boulders, I had a cloud of adoring fish following me about,

Adam,

Was there any uses for sea urchin that you noticed on Hydra? Sauces in restaurants? Bait, perhaps?

[Corinna Dunne]

Hey, I asked for the cheek! It was about as big as my fist. "Matchboos" sounds interesting, is it like a pilau?

←

Yes, that's probably the closest discription. I just tried Googling it but got nothing (the pronounciation of it could be native to the Gulf). Generally, the rice there is flavoured with cardamon and cinnamon, and served with strands of caramelised onions on top. Matchboos made with lamb is also very popular. It is so, so good!

[Kevin72]

Man, what a great year you've had: Tuscany, France, and now Greece? Was Spain this year too?

[Adam Balic]

Man, what a great year you've had: Tuscany, France, and now Greece?  Was Spain this year too?

←

I have been lucky. And I will be in Lithuania in a few weeks too.

The hugh advantage of living in the UK is how close it is to everywhere else.

[Adam Balic]

Hey, I asked for the cheek! It was about as big as my fist. "Matchboos" sounds interesting, is it like a pilau?

←

Yes, that's probably the closest discription. I just tried Googling it but got nothing (the pronounciation of it could be native to the Gulf). Generally, the rice there is flavoured with cardamon and cinnamon, and served with strands of caramelised onions on top. Matchboos made with lamb is also very popular. It is so, so good!

←

This sounds good, I think that I am going to try to make a version on this.

[Adam Balic]

There were few fish about, but by the time I had finished cracking open sea urchins and turning over boulders, I had a cloud of adoring fish following me about,

Adam,

Was there any uses for sea urchin that you noticed on Hydra? Sauces in restaurants? Bait, perhaps?

←

I saw it on a few menus, but they never actually had in on offer on the day. I suspect that, raw with a lemon is it.

Here is the local species, they are very flat in profile rather then rounded.

[Corinna Dunne]

Hey, I asked for the cheek! It was about as big as my fist. "Matchboos" sounds interesting, is it like a pilau?

←

Yes, that's probably the closest discription. I just tried Googling it but got nothing (the pronounciation of it could be native to the Gulf). Generally, the rice there is flavoured with cardamon and cinnamon, and served with strands of caramelised onions on top. Matchboos made with lamb is also very popular. It is so, so good!

←

This sounds good, I think that I am going to try to make a version on this.

←

Oops, I forgot, there's also infused saffron drizzled over the rice. Yes, please give this a shot and report back. It would be interesting to see if anyone on the Middle East Forum is familiar with the term "Matchboos".

[Carrot Top]

I have been lucky. And I will be in Lithuania in a few weeks too.

The hugh advantage of living in the UK is how close it is to everywhere else.

←

The "hugh" advantage to me would seem to be Hugh Grant, but that is up for argument, of course.

Glorious photos, Adam. Life itself. A breath of fresh air.

[johnnyd]

Here is the local species, they are very flat in profile rather then rounded.

Nice pic. It reminds me of the urchins on the Florida coral reefs. Warm water, long-spined, purple sea urchin. They are apparently slowly eating their way through what's left of those reefs too.

[Ninjai Fanatic]

Greece is just another one of those places i've been wanting to go to.. thanks for the beautiful pics!

[Dani Mc]

I think the unidentified large greens were 'Horta'; basically just wild greens. I suspect its a variety of chard. It has a stronger taste to it than spinach, and is usually served wilted in olive oil, with a sprinkle of sea salt, and a squeeze of lemon. We would live on it during day trips to the beach. It was too hot to eat anything else.

Lovely pics of Hydra. I haven't been there yet, but its on my list for the next island we 'must' visit.

I've seen sea urchin on the menu at beach side tavernas quite frequently. A friend went on a boat tour this year, and there was much eating of urchins amongst the crew. I don't know that I want to eat one. I harbor memories of picking them out of the soles of my feet, so there is a bit of dislike I have to work my way through first.

Those scorpion fish look amazing. There is a scorpion fish soup from the Cyclades Islands that is out of this world. Usually called Kakavia Petropsara (rock fish soup). Very simple-whole scorpion fish in a broth of very good quality olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon, bit of garlic, and maybe some boiled potatoes thrown in too. You usually have to go to the taverna a few days ahead to order the fish, and it is so worth it.

Sigh. I miss Greece.

[sazji]

Greens - the first one is called "vlita," it's Amaranth. They use both several local species, as well as cultivated ones, known to gardeners as "Love Lies Bleeding."

It's a wonderful green, productive throughout the summer. The leaves and tender shoots are steamed and then doused with olive oil and lemon and a bit of salt, or made into "vlitopita" with cheese. Incidentally they say that eating too much vlita makes you a bit woozy; either you have to eat a lot or I'm always a bit woozy becaue I never noticed it. The word "vlito" (the singular) also refers to a dimwit.

The next is "radikia," (sing. radiki), wild chichory. It looks a lot like dandelion but not nearly so bitter. It's probably the number one wild green in Greece, and is used boiled as above, and also cooked into other dishes, especially "fricase," with lamb and an egg lemon sauce.

Your pictures made me drool.

[Adam Balic]

Thank you very much for this identification. I was pretty sure that it was Amaranth, but the other had me stumped. I have seen that same thing in Italy and close up it looks like a type of sow thistle. Do you know what colour the flowers are, blue or yellow?

This is exactly that information that I can not find out from eating in restaurants while traveling, thank you again.

Edited October 18, 2005 by Adam Balic (log)

[AzianBrewer]

Are all sea urchins species edible?

[sazji]

Adam, the chicory flowers are blue. It's a very common "weed" even within Istanbul. The leaves lie flat on the ground till it comes up to bloom, then it's fairly branched with only very small leaves and lots of light blue flowers.

And I just saw a bunch of wild chard today, growing alongside the sidewalk in Aksaray, one of the most cement-bound sections of the old city. Not being into ingesting hydrocarbons, I didn't rush to gather it...

[Adam Balic]

Ah, I know what it is then as it grows by the sides of roads in most places I have been, even the rural part of Australia were I was a youngling.