In Praise of Food … Greece

** Sorry for the blog-break - my oldest son graduated (PhD, Physics, Rice University!) and right afterward I got the mother of all colds. I'm finally recovering from both! ** Remember what I said about the cultural experience of grocery shopping in one of my earlier posts? Here's a perfect example!

It happened when my bud Kelley and I were in Crete. We were staying in the port town of Chania (or Hania) and had already had an amazing outdoor lunch by the harbor: grilled veggies and fried calamari (squid). There was also tzatziki, which is a mixture of thick yogurt, finely chopped cucumber, mint, dill, and lemon juice to dip fresh pita bread into. (Okay -- bad grammar but great food!)

We were on a budget and had already spent quite a bit on lunch so decided dinner should be a simple affair. Off we went to a little local grocery store nearby to get some good local ingredients. There was a hot plate in our room and a tiny roof-top patio where we could eat.

When we asked the grocery store owner which local feta was best, he decided we should sample some raki – also known as Cretan firewater. A toast was drunk. When we asked about local tomatoes, we got more raki and another toast was drunk. By the time was got to the local cucumbers, we were getting a little drunk too. (Raki is pretty potent stuff!)

We weaved our merry way back to the room where dinner was duly made (see RIGHT) then we took the stairs up to the patio.It was lovely up there - and soooo romantic! We'd both dreamed of that kind of romantic setting -- unfortunately, not with each other. Everything about our little hotel was romantic - note gauzy canopy of the bed Kelley's sitting on while chopping veggies. (There was a 2 person jacuzzi tub just off to her left.)

We still can't figure out why we were given the honeymoon suite!