I had a rather busy time last week, mainly enjoying friends' visits, and hosting work guests. A Mediterranean function, whether work or home related, is always experienced with food, some of which I cooked, and some of which I ate out. As I dined with my diverse range of guests, I explained the food to them.
At the moment, local food in Hania consists of a lot of zucchini recipes. Restraurant cooks and home cooks alike are cooking a lot of zucchini and vine leaves. The reason for this is quite simple: that's what is abundant at the moment! So when my friends from Holland came to visit me, I served them boureki and dolmadakia.
When we went out for lunch the next day to Dounias, my friends wanted to try the dolmadakia there too, and Stelios, the owner of the restaurant, treated us to some zucchini cooked with eggs.
Later in the week, I went on a work function with Spanish, Italian, French, Albanian and Portuguese colleagues, to the Milia resort in Hania, where zucchini was the main ingredient in most of the dishes: boureki, boiled horta and kolokithokeftedes. Fava, a popular bean dip, was aklso on the menu.
And at the end of the week, when some friends from New Zealand visited me, I decided to cook the same food that the Milia resort served, which wasn't very hard, since our garden is producing a lot of zucchini at the moment.
On the one hand, it may sound boring to eat the same food all the time; on the other, it's sensible to be using local seasonal fresh produce in your food. If it's mainly zucchini, then you;ll be eating mainly zucchini, I guess! Eating fresh, local and seasonal is a mainstay of Crete's hidden economy. You eat what you have, and you don't go hungry.
©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.
At the moment, local food in Hania consists of a lot of zucchini recipes. Restraurant cooks and home cooks alike are cooking a lot of zucchini and vine leaves. The reason for this is quite simple: that's what is abundant at the moment! So when my friends from Holland came to visit me, I served them boureki and dolmadakia.
When we went out for lunch the next day to Dounias, my friends wanted to try the dolmadakia there too, and Stelios, the owner of the restaurant, treated us to some zucchini cooked with eggs.
Later in the week, I went on a work function with Spanish, Italian, French, Albanian and Portuguese colleagues, to the Milia resort in Hania, where zucchini was the main ingredient in most of the dishes: boureki, boiled horta and kolokithokeftedes. Fava, a popular bean dip, was aklso on the menu.
And at the end of the week, when some friends from New Zealand visited me, I decided to cook the same food that the Milia resort served, which wasn't very hard, since our garden is producing a lot of zucchini at the moment.
On the one hand, it may sound boring to eat the same food all the time; on the other, it's sensible to be using local seasonal fresh produce in your food. If it's mainly zucchini, then you;ll be eating mainly zucchini, I guess! Eating fresh, local and seasonal is a mainstay of Crete's hidden economy. You eat what you have, and you don't go hungry.
©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.
About zucchini, we have a joke here in the mountains of the Southern Appalachians that the only time we lock the doors of our house is during zucchini season, so that no well-meaning neighbor can leave a bag of zucchinis on our kitchen tables!
ReplyDeleteThat's so funny, I remember handing out zucchini's to my neighbors back in the days when I had a patch of land. I miss my garden...happy nesting!
DeleteYup! My hubby tells me that when he still lived in Oregon, where he was born and attended college, he would leave bags of zucchini in his friend's cars. He had an extensive garden and also hunted to help him get through each year in college.
DeleteImagine that! Not many young men would think of doing that.
This year we cannot find any zucchini plants in the stores. Maybe it's a backlash to the previous years of zucchini "glut?"
ReplyDeleteI have asked friends who do have zucchini growing in their gardens to call me when they have some to give away.
A couple of days ago I paid $1.00, yes, ONE WHOLE US DOLLAR, for ONE little organic zucchini in the supermarket!!!
Of course if I had known that that ONE zucchini would cost one dollar, I would not have bought it. I only discovered it when
we were well on our way home and since the supermarket is 33 miles away it was not worth turning around to return it.
I just have to make sure we ENJOY that ONE DARNED ZUCCHINI to the fullest!