Gyros (and a great unknown line)

Sometimes, we feel too lazy to cook. And sometimes we buy our meals from a food van. Which is what we did yesterday for dinner.We bought a gyros with halloumi in it. My wife had been curious about the stand so we decided that we'd try it. Also, we have a thing for all things Greek, see this post if you are wondering why. The gyros was okay, nothing great, but the staff was friendly and, from what I could tell, authentically Greek. It is because of our interaction with them that I wanted to blog about the whole experience. When I asked if I could pay the old fashioned way in cash, the cook replied: "Certainly, you can pay by cash, card or even bitcoins if you'd like." I thought it was funny and it deserves to be a great unknown line. Gotta love Mediterranean humour.

Les baklavas

Il y avait un "farmer's market" hier, il y en a un chaque premier samedi du mois. J'ai acheté des baklavas, rien que pour moi et petit loup. Ma femme n'aime guère les baklavas et puis elle sort aujourd'hui avec ses amies pour célébrer sa fête. Ca nous fera un dessert pour mon fils et moi lors de notre journée entre hommes. Wolfie en avait mangé avant, il y a un an ou deux, mais avait oublié. Il se méfiait un peu de l'allure que ça avait, puis en a mangé un et a changé d'avis.

No Lamb for Easter

A few days ago, I stumbled upon this Greek Style roast lamb and potatoes recipe on the Tom Kerridge website. It would be so perfect for an Easter meal. I love lamb, although I have stopped eating it, upon my wife's insistence. She is vegetarian, you see. I used to eat lamb for Easter every year, then I switched to something else, so all the family could enjoy the same meal. Okay so this recipe might have been beyond my skills as a chef, but it pains me all the same that I won't eat anything like this sometimes. My wife would say: at least the lamb will be happy. I might show you what we'll cook tomorrow. It's our new family tradition. It's still a Greek dish.

Baklavas

 I mentioned a few days ago that I went briefly to a food festival and bought a box of olives, to share with Wolfie and me. I also purchased baklavas from the same stand. I haven't eaten baklavas in two years. And I don't have to share them with anyone in this household, because I am the only one who enjoys their taste, apparently. I don't know why I love them so much. Maybe because I thought they were Greek (according to Wikipedia, they are not, and these ones were purchased in a Turkish stand anyway), maybe because I justlove the mix of nut and honey.

Going Greek for Easter

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you enjoyed yourself and had lots of chocolate and especially, that you enjoyed the day. We had a lovely Easter, in spite or maybe because of the lockdown. I had made a point of really making it pleasant and different this year. And we introduced a small change in our celebration of the holiday which might become a new gastronomic tradition for Easter.

Usually, I make an omelette for Easter, but my wife never liked omelettes much, whatever the recipe. So we thought about finding another vegetarian meal that we know we would both enjoy. I got the idea to bake a spanakopita instead. It's mediterranean, so very fitting for an Easter lunch if the weather is nice (it was nice). I also associate Easter a lot with Greek culture, so it made sense to have a Greek meal. More importantly, my wife loves spanakopita, so she would never complain about eating some, at any time. And it is so simple to make, we don't even have to follow a recipe. So here is the spanakopita we had, with tomatoes and olives to accompany it. We'll almost surely make it next year.

Baklava Selection

I mentioned last Friday that there was a food festival in town. We went there the next day for lunch (more on that in another post), then bought a few items of food. One stand was selling Mediterranean stuff, including baklavas. I have a sweet tooth and I love baklavas since I am seven or something. So I bought a selection. Baklavas is like crack made of honey and nuts.It is so very delicious. Unfortunately, my wife does not like it, so only Wolfie and I will have to eat the content of that box. I just gave him a few small bites, I don't want him to eat too much sugary food, but he loves it so much that he now knows the name!

Food festival (and a gyros)

I blogged last year about the local food festival, with stands serving various world food, some exotic, some less so. It is a world food festival. It was a huge success, so much in fact that they have decided to do it again this year. It started tonight, but we will go tomorrow and maybe Sunday as well. Last year, I had (among other things) this delicious gyros. Or at least I think it was a gyros, it was Greek in any case. Not sure what makes a proper gyros, but this one was filling and I hadn't had a gyros (or anything resembling one) in years. I haven't had one since. So tomorrow I might go Greek, or I might go for something more unusual and exotic. I will of course keep you posted about my gastronomic discoveries, or rediscoveries.

Baklavas

I blogged about a week ago about the food festival that was in our local town. There were lots of stands selling lots of delicious stuff, including one selling baklavas. I have a soft spot for baklavas since I'm a little boy. I wanted to try everything Greek, being into mythology, I ate one of those (I think it was in Montreal), got hooked on it since. I rarely think of buying any, but I got really enthusiastic at the festival and had a box full of them, which I finished in about five days. Baklavas are one of these things I love about Greek culture, after its mythology (and I know it might not even be Greek, but I associate it with Greece). It's full of sugar and it has some nuts to make it healthy. Honest. Moral of the story: I have a sweet tooth.

Des baklavas à l'ouvrage

C'est ce que j'ai eu la semaine dernière en matinée: des baklavas. Ils étaient là dans la cuisine au travail. Or il se trouve que: 1)j'ai une dent sucrée, 2)je suis friand de la gastronomie grecque et 3)je suis très friand des baklavas. Alors j'ai essayé d'en laisser aux autres, mais autant le dire honnêtement: je me suis sérieusement bâfré. Morale de l'histoire: il m'arrive d'être goinfre. Mais c'est pas ma faute: le baklava, c'est comme de l'héro feuilletée avec du miel.

Manger méditerranéen

Cette photo a été prise dans un café local, qui est presqu'un restaurant le midi. Le menu est modeste, mais il y a un plateau méditerranéen pour deux qui n'est pas mal: piment, feuilles de vignes farcies, olives (et vous savez comment j'aime les olives), houmous, falafels, etc. Servi sur une pierre rectangulaire, pour faire pseudo-primitif. En fait, je trouve ça très élégant, tout en demeurant simple. C'est méditerranéen, mais je devrais dire grec, parce que ben c'est surtout grec, comme les patrons d'ailleurs. Il y a un peu plus d'une semaine, j'ai blogué sur un met grec. Ce qui m'a fait repenser à ce repas. Malheureusement ce n'est plus tout à fait aussi estival que ce l'était, pas l'idéal pour un tel régime, mais j'y retournerais dès qu'il fait un peu beau.

Manger grec

Petite plogue gastronomique pour ce soir... Ce que vous voyez ici est un (une?) spanakopita, un classique de la gastronomie grecque, une tarte dont l'intérieur est un mélange de fromage feta et d'épinards. Lorsque l'été est en pleine force et qu'il fait donc chaud, c'est le repas idéal. Et puis c'est niaiseux à faire. Je vous recommande d'essayer ça un de ces quatre.

Gelée de pommettes

Ca m'est venu ce matin en déjeunant: je m'ennuie de la gelée de pommette sur mes toasts. Celle qu'on faisait à la maison, enfin que mes aprents font encore. Je ne la faisais pas moi-même, je me contentais de cueillir les pommettes et de les laver par la suite (en écoutant du Mozart la plupart du temps, pour une raison quelconque je me rappelle toujours qu'il faisait un temps de chien dehors). La photo de gauche a été prise par mes parents lors de la fabrication de la gelée. Je ne peux pas décrire adéquatement l'odeur qui se répand alors dans la maison. C'est fruité et automnal. Je vais essayer de publier prochainement la recette qu'utilise mon père, parce que je l'ai sur Dropbox, mais elle est un peu longue. D'ici là, vous avez cette photo.

Exotic mood

It happens sometimes: I get into a particular "cultural" mood. Maybe I am just a shallow tourist deep down. Recently, my wife and we made spanakopita, one of our favourite "couple" meal. So I had again a Greek feeling. I wish the weather had been Greek too. But it was neither hot nor dry. I also try to speak Italian as much as I can with an Italian colleague of mine, hoping to improve it. And there was a company dinner last night in an authentic Mexican restaurant (as in: the fajitas did not taste like your Old El Paso mix). So I am in an exotic mood. Since I put enough of Italian songs here (or songs in ITalian), I thought I put that Greek song you can hear near the end of the second season of The Wire. I put it here because I am in this exotic mood, because I love the song and because the Greeks were maybe my favourite villains in the whole series.

Greek meal (sort of)

We bought a ready-made Greek meal at Marks & Spencer (just when they are in trouble) for dinner. It had a couple of things, including olives (I ate them all bare one, as my wife does not like olives), tzatziki (took me five minutes to type that one correctly) and stuffed vine leaves. Delicious, it made my evening.

Okay, this is a very boring topic and I am again blogging about food, but my life is really uneventful at the moment.