Extra-Thick Pork Chop Stuffed with Roasted Red Peppers & Graviera
Last week I caught my food muse, Chef Dina Nikolaou serve up a baked pork chop stuffed with peppers and Graviera cheese and I knew I just had to try this dish…with my own personal touches. I knew that I had to translate this into a grilled dish – it’s BBQ season. Roasted red peppers […]
Grilled Halloumi Salad With a Kalamata Olive Vinaigrette
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. […]
Greek Easter v.2010
Here we are, the day after Easter Sunday and another feast under our belts…literally! Easter for Greeks is the most significant religious holiday. With Easter, you get the death and resurrection of Christ…we don’t take death and rebirth lightly. Easter’ parallel with Spring, a new cycle of birth and regeneration all fall together perfectly for […]
Grilled Butterflied European Sea Bass
Each time I go to Greece I have to stop by the “Kourdisto Gouroni” (Wind-up Pig) in the Agia Sophia neighborhood of central Thessaloniki. This eatery has been in operation since the early 1990’s and the feel of the place and the food could be best described as “Greek Bistro”. Lots of beers on tap […]
Grilled Lobster
So the first week of Greek Lent is behind us and it really wasn’t that hard adjusting from my regular diet to one without meat or any meat by-products in it. Each year I’ve been steering my diet towards one with more fish and seafood, beans and legumes and less meat. I don’t think I […]
Lamb Souvlaki
Last Thursday was Tsiknopempti in Greece (and anywhere in the world where Greeks celebrated the most popular meat-grilling day of Greek Carnival). I had three options: stay home and simply make a meat dish using my oven’s broiler or a grill pan. Option 2 was to head down to Toronto’s Greektown (the Danforth) and be […]
Chicken Wings tou Kalofaga
In Greece, festivities are well under way. It’s Carnival time in Greece and one of the biggest days is centered around grilled meats. The period of Carnival in Greece is called “Apokries” and today marks “Tsiknopempti”. Tsiknopempti is a compound word that describes the smell of grilled meats and Thursday: “Tsikno-pempti”. Tavernas will have lit […]
Grilled Sardine Fillets With Chips
The ironic thing about vacations are that one yearns to escape the everyday routine and replace it with a vacation routine. I want change, I want to escape computers, telephones, work-life and replace it with sea, sun, beach, family, friends and food. When on vacation at my parents’ home in Halkidiki, the new routine is […]
Modiano Market (Αγορά-Μοδιάνο)
I gave you a tour of the Kapani Market of Thessaloniki (a few days ago) and I mentioned that the Modiano Agora (market) was also nearby. The two markets really operate in tandem, separated merely by concrete, Ermou Street. The Modiano Market got it’s name from Ely Modiano, the architect who designed this arcade that […]
Back From Greece and Armed With Recipes
Yes, I am back from Greece. I’m rested, re-invigorated and ready to take on life once again. This year’s vacation to Greece marks my 20th time visiting the country of my origin. I visited much of the mainland, from the northernmost province of Macedonia to the southernmost tip of Greece, the peninsula of Neapolis with […]
