Inspired by a side dish I enjoyed recently at the newly opened Ruby Watchco, this dish makes for a wonderful vegetarian main course or a colourful side dish. Tourlou is a baked vegetable dish that is cooked often in Greek homes. The Greek kitchen is loaded with vegetarian options and this aspect of our cuisine [...]

This dish is for you folks that like it hot, some heat in a dish. Everyone in my family enjoys hot peppers in a dish but no one as much as a my dad. We’re talking about a man from the Prefecture of Florina, located in the northwestern province of Macedonia. My mom is from [...]

This dish was made with the intent on transporting my parents back to their towns in located in the northern Greek prefecture of Florina. Florina is located about 2 hours northwest of Thessaloniki. It’s at the top end of Greece and it’s motto is “Where Greece Begins”. This region is mountainous with stretches of elevated [...]

Greek cuisine is full of vegetarian main options and many of those being main courses that are filling, nutritious and delicious. It’s Spring and herbs are abundant at the markets and in some of your herb gardens. The main ingredient of this one-pot dish are flat, runner or pole beans. Fassolakia. These flat beans are [...]

I’m not sure which ingredient is the star here – the Halloumi cheese or this dressing made primarly of processed Kalamata olives? The Kalamata olive is best known as topping the famous Greek or Horiatiki salad. The Halloumi cheese, born in Cyprus, enjoyed equally throughout the Middle East and gaining new fans around the world. [...]

This salad comes to you with inspiration of the season, my visit last year to southern Greece (Laconia) and timely in that it’s also a Lent-friendly dish. Let’s examine the ingredients: a new shipment of Greek extra-virgin olive oil, just shipped from the old country and courtesy of a family friend. The early harvest of [...]

One of my family’s favourite Sunday meals centers around a Prime Rib Dinner. It’s not a cheap cut of meat (Prime Rib) but it’s fitting for a Sunday meal. From Medieval times, the wealthy used to get to eat the tender, more expensive cuts and the rest of us were left with scraps, offal and [...]

Happy New Year everyone! This is my first post of the new year, the new decade. I hope your holidays were spent with family and friends surrounding you, good food and drink were enjoyed and hopefully you had the time and thoughtfulness to think about those less fortunate. January is a month of resolutions, goal-setting [...]

Last month, Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving Day (Oct.12th) and alongside of the usual turkey, fixins, pumpkin pie came a soup as a starter. My brother’s girlfriend is of Polish descent and being fully aware that she (as with many Slavic peoples) that they love beets. Last year I made a Beet soup with a Greek flare [...]

This dish features snails. I’m very much aware that this dish will not get a million hits or dozens of comments but it’s a necessary post. If I am to accurately showcase Greek cuisine, I must feature all the traditional ingredients, including snails. My friend Deeba has yet to try snails but I think this [...]