The latest food advertisement to hit Greek television:
Kikitsa, Pagona, Efterpi and Marigo (old-fashioned women's village names) are dressed in the typical middle-aged style of rural peasants. They are not as innocent as they look; they are the recipe guardians, keepers of the most well-guarded secret recipes of the Greek countryside. "And now here's the new series of traditional Greek salads by Hellmann, a taste of mama's taramosalata (from Macedonia), red pepper spread (Prespes), fava (Santorini), and melitzanosalata (I couldn't read the placename)."
Phoneys, beware...
This ad follows a series of older commercials where the same lovely lasses in the new advertisement are shown in their village kitchens making sushi ("the young ones are coming up for the weekend, so I thought I'd cook something for them") and chili con carne (a Greek mama runs to catch the long distance bus, shouting out to the driver: "Wait for me please! I want the children to eat it as fresh as possible"), sushi and chili con carne being the most unlikely candidates in a Greek mama's kitchen.
If you think Greece is all about sun, sea and sand, look carefully at the commercial; the women's appearance and clothing is very typical of Greek rural life in 2009. It may be an aspect you don't often see as a tourist coming to Crete or any other part of Greece on a summer holiday. Women that look and dress just like them are a part of my daily life. Kikitsa looks very much like my mother-in-law, Pagona resembles one of my neighbours, Efterpi looks a little like the old ladies that have moved away from the village and into the town to be close to their offspring, while Marigo, the one that impresses me most, reminds me of all the women I see on an everyday basis on the street just outside my house, carrying buckets, a hoe, maybe a chicken that they'd killed, some horta, weedy greens for the rabbits, a few as they make their way from their home to the field, maybe to milk the sheep or collect the eggs from the chicken coop, tending the flora and fauna on their patch of earth.
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Kind of a funny ad BUT I've always found the supermarket salads to be a big disappointment, no matter what the so-called recipe guardians say. For storebought mayo though, Hellmans aka Best Foods is my hands-down favorite.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter and her peers et sushi and Thai food. It has changed the way I have to think about cooking because she doesn't care for what I call my comfort foods.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun to watch a commercial from your area of the planet!
ReplyDeletei've never bought any of these myself (we had eggplants and red peppers growing in the garden until the end of January, and fava is dreadfully easy to make)
ReplyDeletethe earlier advertisements were also very funny:
"Hey there, whatcha making?" says one black-clad old lady to another.
"Just some sushi to send down to the young 'uns," she replies. In reality, an old black-clad Greek woman would not know what the word sushi means...
what i find particularly interesting about this advert is that it is very representative of Greek rural women, it is an aspect of Greek life that a European tourist coming to greece on a package tour would probably not be able to see easily. these fictitious characters really are the guardians of the culinary traditions of Greek cuisine
"these fictitious characters really are the guardians of the culinary traditions of Greek cuisine"...and bravo to them!
ReplyDelete~Lulu Barbarian
http://mamastaverna.com/
LOL...beware of phonies! My giagia (and everyone else's) would never settle for serving a tub of this processed gunk.
ReplyDeleteThe advert is funny but that's it!
What was that an ad for? I couldn't quite make it out. Looks like Houmous, maybe melizanasalata and some others?
ReplyDeleteDo Greeks actually buy this stuff?