March 25th, 1821
That is the day that Greeks began the uprising against the occupation by the Ottoman Turks. Today in Greece, it’s naturally a national holiday and in each town, village and city there will be parades, speeches and commemorative wreaths laid in honour of fallen soldiers. For us Greeks here in the Diaspora, we are bound […]
John Dory Fillet With Lentils
As I’ve written in some of my earlier posts, Greek cuisine is going through an awakening. Much like other cuisines, the Greeks are reinterpreting traditional dishes with new ingredients and offering “new takes” and presentations. One such Greek chef at the forefront of this movement is Lefteris Lazarou. He’s well-known inside Greece and his star […]
Tourist in My Own City
One of my favourite things to do on my spare time is to roam different neighborhoods in Toronto. I live in the suburbs but I’m a downtown guy and I’m often in an area called Kensington Market. Kensington Market was (and still is) an area of the city where immigrants would first reside and set-up […]
Red Snapper With a Tomato Herb Crust
Despite Greece having a mild winter, the general population does stay in quite a bit. Greeks will opt for for cozy nights at home with friends or out at a taverna or club. Either way, you don’t see many Greeks doing outdoor grilling (in the winter). Greeks rate seafood integral to their diet and in […]
Sardines and Such
You see them on the shelves of your grocery store. You see them in the discount bin, you have them in your cellar (a whole case), just in case Armegeddon arrives. You can now have them included in your recipe box. My first experiment with sardine tins came in the fall of 2007 and I […]
Brown Bagging for Dinner
The French have a knack for making something very simple to sound “chi-chi-frou-frou” and charging a helluva’lot for it. I can be frugal. Tonight’s dinner was “en papillote” but I ran out of parchment paper. “En papillote” simply means “in paper”. I’ve seen many dishes that are tucked into little packages of foil, parchment, pastry […]
Baked Sea Bass
It’s back to seafood folks. Yesterday I came upon some black sea bass fillets. I was told these were Atlantic sea bass, so I was buying something relatively local and the fish did not make a cross-country journey to get to my table. Had the weather been better, I would have sought a whole fish […]
Poached John Dory Fillet
It’s Friday and some of you are screaming TGIF and you’re eagerly awaiting the weekend. Some of you might even be listening to Loverboy! Fridays for me also mean that it’s no meat today (at least I try). One doesn’t have to go “all out” vegan but the I like the break from meat each […]
Seared Salmon on Baby Spinach
This next dish is a popular one from Epicurious and it’s one I first tried with my ex. If you take a look at the recipe, there are 12 pages of comments (mostly positive) made and 93% would make this dish again. Another interesting tidbit about this dish is that I’ve had about 3 friends […]
Fish and No Chips!
I’ve told you all that Toronto boasts of being quite multi-ethnic. I can dine at practically any type of restaurant I want and with some darting around the city, buy the most outlandish, obscure, foreign food item out there. Conversely, it is getting harder and harder to find more traditional foods on a menu or […]
