As I've written here before I do consider myself a foodie, although I am seriously contemplating the validity of tagging myself that. The reason for my doubt and insecurity is that in reality, I use about five ingredients consistently. Olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, garlic... ok four ingredients. SIX if you count salt and pepper. Let's count them!
We're lucky to be spending about 2 1/2 weeks in Greece this summer. So as I prepared my shopping list for the grocery store upon arrival it looked like this:
- Olive oil, direct from the source
- Lemons
- Feta cheese, which I can eat for three meals a day, and do.
- Olives, any kind, preferably in a can which you can't find often here in the US. Olives are my favorite, and they've gotten me into some trouble in my past. The only time I ever got into hot water with my yiayia, was over an olive incident when I was 12 or 13, but that's for another post.
- Greek bread, although you don't have to ask for Greek bread, just bread. Crusty, covered with sesame seeds, and never eaten with butter, and accompanies the feta cheese in 2 out of the 3 meals.
- Tomatoes
- Red Wine
- Oregano
As my friend wrote me in a sweet note before I left for sabbatical, it's time to get your Greek on! More like putting into overdrive. As luck would have it, I found authentic Greek olives, in a can, at my grocery store down the street.
The ingredients above went into a fresh yogurt cucumber mint dip. Perfect with meatballs or veggies. Olives on the side. There will be no incident, I promise!
tomatoes just about sum up greek food in our house. sauce is always red! in august you can expect to find vlita (amaranth), as well as the usual salad greens like spinach and lettuce. there should be plenty of herbs available too. the hottest month of the year is the one with the least leafy greens available due to lack of adequate irrigation - the most abundant leafy greens are found in October onwards in Crete for this reason. Hope you have a great holiday!
Posted by: maria v | 02 July 2008 at 21:46