tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30115653415281156352009-11-12T21:06:50.697+02:00Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.comBlogger420125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-65853527379781691892009-11-11T07:38:00.007+02:002009-11-12T09:41:05.968+02:00

The Cookie Man? In Hania? Well, howdy doo...The Cookie Man, helping Cretans develop a taste for warm cookies, among many other global treats.

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-27817927266183849222009-11-10T08:00:00.013+02:002009-11-12T09:41:26.097+02:00

Greek food blogging is highly competitive, or should I call it the Greek food blogosphere (depending on which one will get me more ratings): a day in the life of The Best Greek Food Blogger...Kalimera everybody, and what a kali mera it is! What about a morning pick-me-up? How about some Greek coffee and a koulouraki to go with that? And a double Elliniko for all of those who are snowed in at work

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-20643717946877892072009-11-07T08:00:00.018+02:002009-11-08T09:52:21.940+02:00

In Hania, we have two second-hand shops which are owned and operated by ex-patriate English women. Here, you can pick up anything from clothing to furniture; I shop here mainly for English-language books, mainly novels. British tourist residents (and other foreign nationals) often trade old novels here and it's a chance for me to pick up some book bargains at even much cheaper prices than what

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-70540227615346801702009-11-04T19:30:00.004+02:002009-11-08T12:04:46.846+02:00

Please take note that I am not a food historian and have never claimed to be one either; my musings on food have an empirical basis, and followers of my blog will agree that my posts are highly descriptive accounts of the food scene on a Mediterranean island. And they may also agree that I "can cook".When you last visited Greece, were you surprised to see the waiter come to your table and leave

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-50621442191906004002009-11-03T08:00:00.022+02:002009-11-03T09:53:29.071+02:00

This post is part of the Cook the Books blog event running until November 8, 2009. Read Peter Mayles' French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew and cook something inspired by the book. Post your inspiration on your blog and link to Cook the Books.)What with the French being so close to Greece (both countries class themselves as Mediterranean, since they share the sea of the

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-57124535061775681792009-10-31T08:00:00.011+02:002009-10-31T08:00:04.650+02:00

Fruit is healthy, children should eat fruit, everyone should include five portions of fruit in their daily intake, you've heard it all before. This I bear in mind whenever I go shopping, and I try to buy all the variety and quality that my purse can afford. In this day and age, though, where all innocence is lost concerning the safety of our food due to diseases, climate change and pesticide use,

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-86540499573224006492009-10-28T09:25:00.020+02:002009-10-28T09:25:00.194+02:00

When the weather isn't too hot, nor too cold (but not today, because it's raining here), and it's a public holiday (like today, when we commemorate NO day), it's the perfect time for this...My mother had been a forager all her life. As a young girl in Crete, she foraged for snails and wild greens near the environs of her mountain village home. She did not forage for pleasure; she foraged for

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-57888343770747318422009-10-26T08:00:00.002+02:002009-10-26T11:21:29.977+02:00

It had always been a dream of mine to visit Thessaloniki, and after 19 years (to the day) of permanent residence in Greece (I'm well on my way to marking half my life here), I finally got to the north of the country.Thessaloniki, Greece, and her neighboursSelanik, Solun, Salonicco, Salonicha, Salonique, Salonica, Sãrunã, Salonika, Saloniki, Saruna, Thess, Thessalonika. Despite having its name

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-4415725901486475292009-10-24T12:43:00.007+03:002009-11-12T09:40:36.188+02:00

The last of the chocolate chip cookie dough that I had made recently was frozen in little balls, ready to be cooked, after thawing a little (I simply defrosted them without allowing them to thaw completely). I thought I would be glad to see the last of them, after all that strife they caused me when I first made them. Even if our dog were to enjoy most of them this time round, at least the

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-57715861658566020782009-10-22T09:00:00.009+03:002009-10-24T13:23:48.803+03:00

A while back, I saw some large chocolate chip cookies prominently displayed in a bakery in the town centre. They were about the size of a desert plate. I decided to snack on one as I was doing my jobs around he town."Would you like me to heat it up for you?" asked the shop assistant. What's she talking about? I wondered. It had never occurred to me that a biscuit could be warmed up before it was

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-3963477232040296742009-10-20T19:40:00.033+03:002009-10-22T10:38:08.377+03:00

Join me in half an hour (8:00pm Greek time) when I make souvlaki yiro!You need:some greek pita bread, some leftover cold roast meat of your choice (sausages will also do), some tomato, some onion, some parsley, some strained Greek yoghurt, a potato, paprika, olive oilYour mise en place for souvlaki yiroNow for the hardware:a small frying pan, a larger frying pan, some greaseproof paper cut in a

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-82463129140878387342009-10-19T08:00:00.001+03:002009-10-19T08:00:00.738+03:00

There were times when growing up as a Greek in 1980s Wellington were very, very difficult...Rachel was a repeating sixth former who wore mufti; we had crossed paths occasionally through our volunteer work at the library. She was blond, blue-eyed, skinny, pale-skinned, the exact opposite of myself, a dark-haired, olive-skinned, chubby brunette. With racial equality being practiced right throughout

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-33080637678379616242009-10-16T09:00:00.015+03:002009-10-16T09:00:00.553+03:00

It is very rare for the children to choose what they are going to eat when we go out for a meal (Dad's tastes are more refined than junk food). On this night, I let them choose where they wanted to go. Hamburger meals (the Greek version of McDonalds is Goody's) have never really caught on in Crete, except in urban areas, so I could guess what the children were going to choose among: souvlaki,

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-42277475042212417512009-10-14T08:00:00.000+03:002009-10-14T08:00:06.369+03:00

Once upon a time, there was a lady (and I suspect there were quite a few of them like her) that couldn't say the word 'sandwich'. When Kiria Soula talked about sandwiches (and it was often, because she owned and operated a milk bar with her husband which served lots of them), she always called them 'sammidge'; it just came out much easier for her to pronounce the word in this way, and everyone

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-42220442159807054262009-10-12T08:00:00.001+03:002009-10-12T08:40:04.912+03:00

For the north of the country, the weather was incredibly hot. This was not what they had expected. They had packed two jackets each, sweatpants and long sleeved T-shirts for their trip, heeding everyone's advice about how cold it would be at this time of year. Having never travelled this direction before, they could not work out if they were in the middle of a heatwave, or if these were normal

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-3120064715065459422009-10-09T12:00:00.007+03:002009-10-21T14:33:48.007+03:00

Crete is a small island, and Hania is not the biggest town on it, but it is lucky to have one of the four Mediterranean Agronomic Institutes (MAIs) based in Europe: apart from MAI Chania (MAICh), there is also MAI Bari (Italy), MAI Montpellier (France) and MAI Zaragosa (Spain). The MAIs are semi-private agronomic research institutes directed by a French organisation, CIHEAM (International Centre

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-83904267506501095622009-10-07T08:00:00.002+03:002009-10-07T08:00:06.387+03:00

Remember the good old wine and cheese days? There was always a bunch of grapes on one side of the platter, and most times a selection of nice crackers to go with the range of cheeses which always included camembert, while the wines being served invariably carried French names. This was my first introduction to pairing cheese with fruit. I was also a great fan of a salad served at the Victoria

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-22605837454188070082009-10-04T09:00:00.003+03:002009-10-05T17:03:53.854+03:00

Greeks are going to the polls this weekend, deciding on the country's future. As they have always been very passionate people in every sense of the word, in aspects of their lives, so politics is one topic that gets most of us overheated. Love 'em or hate 'em, our politicians are getting the whole country worked up at the moment as we await the results of today's general elections, which nearly

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-10728940457426692712009-10-01T08:00:00.005+03:002009-10-01T08:44:27.121+03:00

We spent less than 24 hours in the Pelion region, a place that deserves at least a week of exploration and mainly on foot, but each moment there was special. After sleeping in the most peaceful surroundings we have ever encountered (our neighbourhood is very noisy in the summer), we left the hotel and decided to have breakfast at Makrinitsa, a non-vehicle village to which access is gained by a

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-85846553590302239262009-09-28T09:02:00.005+03:002009-09-28T15:48:50.648+03:00

Galotiri (galo=milk, tiri=cheese, therefore: milky cheese) is a curd cheese made by combining feta cheese, yoghurt and milk. It's a product of Central Greece, and is used as a table cheese or added to pies and pasties. because it is a fresh curd cheese, it doesn't travel well, so it isn't well known around Greece outside its local origins. We were introduced to it on our recent trip to Pelion.My

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-68957733795340347712009-09-25T08:00:00.005+03:002009-09-25T08:58:37.698+03:00

It may look as though I haven't left Hania, but depending on where the stress mark is placed, Hania becomes a different place. HA-nia (not my own town of ha-NIA) is a small mountain village located in the Pelion mountain range in central Greece. It is a popular winter resort with a ski-field; in the summer, it is less popular with the (mainly Greek) tourists, who prefer (naturally) the coastal

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-8964693792538887852009-09-22T08:00:00.028+03:002009-09-28T20:34:47.500+03:00

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Apples are full of vitamins, they are light in calories, they have beneficial effects on the digestive system; if fruits can be classified in the same way as colours, then apples must be one of the primary fruits. My earliest apple memories are those I lived in Wellington: the Tory St fruit and vegetable market, truckloads of red and green apples, rolling off

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-44980566198819993582009-09-19T09:00:00.002+03:002009-09-19T13:47:06.722+03:00

My aunt had received a package from New Zealand which her daughter had sent her. It contained a separate parcel for me, a few bits and pieces that I might appreciate for old times' sake as an ex-pat Kiwi. My favorite presents are those from abroad because I know they will fill my mind with nostalgic memories of home, which doesn't really feel like home any more anyway.I knew that there would be a

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-1531297557875750012009-09-16T10:46:00.009+03:002009-09-16T12:37:36.230+03:00

Children can't make healthy choices when offered less healthy but much tastier choices. That's final. Here's a little experiment I conducted on some children I was entertaining at my house during the summer.I had set up a play date for my children. Their friend was invited to our house where all the children had free reign over the garden, the living room, the balconies and the children's bedroom

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3011565341528115635.post-69636808652103016212009-09-13T08:00:00.014+03:002009-09-13T16:53:01.870+03:00

Back-to-school time - as long as swine flu doesn't close it down. Until the serious fires that swept through the area north of Athens recently, that's all the TV news talked about. Greece has had its fair share of cases of swine flu, notably in the islands which are holiday destinations for Northern Europeans, mainly British citizens who helped spread it in Greece, especially in the islands. If

Mediterranean kiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440852486788630957noreply@blogger.com8