BrookLEn in Greece: an overview

Well, I finally made an honest woman out of LBT after all these blog-ed years, and after an amazing wedding, we jetted off to Greece for the views, the sun, and of course, the big eats. Late July in Greece is high-tourist season, but fortunately, LBT has some old friends living in Athens who helped to guide us on either end of our 'honey-trip', with some trial-and-error on the way.

Our first lesson of Greek food: aim for the middle. We tried some high-end eating (1800 in Santorini was the best test; great views, tasty but forgettable dishes), but the more outstanding and memorable meals were tavernas in the middle of our price range. To start, our Athens hosts, Kim and Maro, took us to Bakaliko, which has several locations in the outskirts of the city. Starting with a most impressive olive tasting, we had a 'special' lasagna: fettuccine congealed with bechamel and meat. Kim also had risotto-stuffed pepper and tomato which might have been the most delicate dish we had in the country.

Next lesson: Try the fish. On Santorini, we scored with a recommendation from a boat captain, who suggested we go to "the last taverna on the pier", a little place called Taverna Dimitri. There, we experienced seismically good swordfish and orata (sea bream), so good we only got pictures before the grill. Paradisos Taverna on Santorini offered us "little fish", or whatever the Greek fisher-dad caught that day. Probably sardines, they tasted robust, oily, and delicious.

Last lesson: Go with the flow. No Greek word is ever spelled in English the same way twice, and no eating experience ever goes like you'd expect. Our hosts took us for a final taverna meal to a place as what I can only guess is called Oxapa. Maro ordered a flurry of food for us, and though much of it was fried, all was taken in with glee and abandon; sausages, fried zucchini, tzatziki, feta salads, with great Greek wine (our favorite label was Sigalas)... one last blurry meal for a speedy honeymoon trip.

Girls Cooking Night 3: Greek

The latest girls night theme was Greek. Above are the makings of our Greek salad which were devoured before Marian could actually make them into a salad. We liked to think of it as a "deconstructed" Greek salad.

My contribution was the spanakopita -- which I had never made before, but was surprisingly easy. Just mixed chopped spinach with feta, ricotta, scallions, with salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste. I cut the salt from the recipe way down since feta's already pretty salty. Then it's just the layering of the phyllo, each layer brushed with melted butter. It took a whole stick of butter, but then again that was for the whole pan, so when you break it up into 12 slices, doesn't seem that bad. I lost count, but I did roughly 7 layers below, then filling, then seven layers above.

Brownie contributed the lamb kofta, which I thought was cooked perfectly - just a little pink inside, nice and juicy. It went really well with Marian's homemade tsaziki which sounded complex -- who knew spanakopita was easy and tsaziki was hard! Debbie made the shrimp scampi over couscous, which was delicious. And finally for dessert was Kim's baklava with almonds which was totally decadent.
Because phyllo rolls came in 2, and because when I brought back the leftover spanakopita redneckhunter devoured it (this from a guy who thinks green things are evil), I actually made it again Sunday night. I'm splitting a farm share this summer and I've been told to expect lots and lots of kale. I'm foreseeing experimenting with other phyllo "green thing" pies. If the only way to get redneckhunter to eat them is to mix them with cheese and encase them with pastry and butter, well then I guess I just gotta do it...