CAG on travel: Eating in Athens

A little delayed for 2014, but I’m finally catching up on some of the blogging I’ve been meaning to do. As usual during my travels in Athens, I have so much Greek food that I love and miss when I’m away. When I was in Athens earlier this year I had a few old favourites and some new culinary experiences.

Cutting the Vasilopita

On arrival, I finally had a chance to take part of the Vasilopita cake cutting. The cake technically is meant for New Years Day to celebrate Saint Vasili. There’s a coin placed in the lemony sponge cake batter, and whoever gets the slice with a coin in it will have a New Year with lots of luck. I had a piece of cake with my family- no coin. I also had another piece at my cousin’s business anniversary party- again no coin. On the positive side, I ate a whole lot of cake symbolising life, liberty, and happiness, so that’s working out.

Cut pieces of cake, neither with the lucky coin

I also restablished my love of late night food after a long Greek night out at my favourite crepe place. Just on Kifissias Avenue and on the way home, savoury crepes might be my very favourite post party food. I really wish there were a few more late night choices in the UK as well.

The lovely Greeks hard at work making my spinach crepe

The best place I ate during my trip was Dionysos, a restaurant directly in view of the Acropolis. Anywhere you eat while looking upon the Acropolis is pretty magical, but this restaurant was very special.

View from the restaurant

It is quite pretty, modern, and formal inside, and the food is absolutely amazing. Probably not the biggest portions of food available in Greece, but everything is really delicious at least. It’s also worth it for the winter sunset alone.

Monkfish, horta, mustard based sauce

Winter sun!

A big Greek wedding... and some recharging

Long time no write, but I've had a really amazing week of relaxing at home in Greece and being in Athens for one of my oldest friend's wedding. Because I don't live in Greece and the weddings of family and friends seem to be announced within my circle at relatively short notice, I haven't actually been to a Greek wedding before. I was attending at the end of a week filled with beaches, sun, eating way too much Greek cheese, and relaxation. Despite having a week leading up to the wedding, there was certainly a lot more anticipation and events schedule than I am used to. This really heightened my own curiosity about what all the ritual and ceremony of a Greek wedding would really entail.

A view of the beach on Halkida, island connected to Athens by bridge

In the days before the wedding there were bachelorette parties, which I was told are not traditional in Greece and explaining them was actually a bit embarrassing- feather boas, veils, matching outfits, slightly more than social drinking - it really underlined the cultural difference for me. There was a party to celebrate the groom's birthday, and the night before the wedding there was a party at the bride's house for her friends and family. I'm not so sure about the traditional element of these parties, but they did keep some traditional Greek 5am end times, so all that rest and relaxation might have come undone a little on my part.

Dressing the bride

On the wedding day itself, that's when things really became interesting. The girls were asked to come to the bride's house in order to dress the bride. Little did I know that actually physically meant dressing a bride. Imagine 20 girls in a room clamoring to dress one tiny bride and pulling her in all directions all the while singing, clapping, and partaking in some rather loud Greek shouting (which is just normal conversation but comes out louder than English seems to). Amazingly what was really disorienting for me is I believe my friend truly enjoyed all of it and seemed happier than ever. Clichés apparently exist for a reason, and the 'dressing of the bride' felt a little like the corresponding scene from My Big Fat Greek Wedding -except she obviously looked way better!     

Attention to the 'something blue'

After the bride was dressed probably about half of all her family and friends were waiting for her to come out and visit with everyone. Then the bride wrote the names of the single girls in attendance on the bottom of her shoe. I think that whichever name is the boldest by the end of the night is supposed to be the girl who gets married next, but I didn't look.

Then apparently the brother of the groom was supposed to come to put the shoes onto the bride, but he was late. So first there was some traditional hora circle dancing that occurred with the bride in flip flops while waiting for the brother to arrive. At 7pm as we were meant to be in church, it became apparent there had been a mixup, so the bride had to be shoed by another male family member, and we headed off to walk to the church...in the middle of an Athens road...with a huge party of 50 people. Definitely something to be seen.

Arrival at church to a pre-marriage kiss!! cheeky

Inside the little church in Psyhiko, it was hot. Beautiful, moving, and HOT. The people who stood next to the bride and groom where there for support, AND to fan the bride and groom and mop up sweat. For real.

There is a lot of ritual in a Greek Orthodox wedding, and overall the lighting of candles, crowning, drinking from the same cup, taking the first steps as husband and wife, and the final words to the couple take around 40 minutes, but in the summer heat it can be hard to bare.

The crowning

Possibly the most surprising part for those who haven't been to a Greek wedding would be the rice throwing. The whole time the priest was reading from his bible I kept thinking that is one massive, silver inlaid, 'this means business' bible. When the rice throwing began as the couple took their first steps as a married couple, the sweet and demure toss I'm used to in American weddings somehow was turned into what seemed like a public stoning, but with rice replacing the stones. That priest's bible made of steel really came in handy as he used it as a shield himself and the couple from the rice warfare.

The rice- Photo copyright Dot Studio, 2013

Arriving at the reception

The rest of the wedding was largely like a lot of international weddings with the cutting of the cake, father-daughter dance, dinner and wine, but with the Greek additions of hora style traditional dancing, smoking being allowed at the tables (still hard for me to get used to), and a normal party end time of about 6am.

Those green leafy veges are just for show, 98% meat plate

The traditional father of the groom dance 

What economic crisis! (Just kidding, they are the best napkins)

I'm so happy I could be there and witness my friend getting married, and she's taught me a lot over the last week. Mainly that we should all be so lucky to be as happy as her.

My Big Fat Greek Easter- Sunday the celebration day

The gory image above, of a young goat and its intestines chilling in an air-conditioned room, are somewhat of a specialty of Greek cuisine and provide a feast on Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday. Especially after fasting from meat over the Lent period, the meal of katziki and kokoretsi (goat and its intestines) is very traditional. Lamb may be cooked as well.

Hors d'oeuvres

On the day, the preparation of the goat and fire start at 9am, because the goat has to cook for 5 hours with constant tending to the flames. While this is going on, there are plenty of snacks of eggs (the loser eggs of the red-egg game), cucumbers, feta, and olives. Tsipro, an anise-flavored aperitif is also drunk throughout the day.

Men tending the fire

The Sunday is a day for families to come together and celebrate, so it becomes a good chance to see people you haven’t seen, catch up with friends, and have guests over most of the day. The main star of the show though is the roasted meat as it is finished and served for Easter lunch.

Goat done and heading to the serving pan