Sunday, July 27, 2008

The food diaries: part 1 - Greece


Looking through my folders for Parisian food photos for my Paris post (which is still to come), I came across several food photos from my trip to Greece earlier in the summer and other meals I've had in London. So I though I'd do a series of foodie posts showing you not the places I've visited, but the food I've enjoyed along the way. Today we start with Greece - France, England and maybe one or two other destinations to follow.

A typical summer meal at a seaside Greek taverna consists of:


Greek salad - made with tomatoes, cucumber, onion, green peppers, black olives, lots of olive oil, oregano and a slab of feta cheese. Tourists tend to have the salad as a main course, but Greeks would always order it as a shared dish between 2-4 people.


Tzatziki - a dip made with yogurt, cucumber, garlic, olive oil and vinegar. Can be very strong or quite mild, depending on how much garlic's gone in. Goes well with bread.


Fried squid. It tastes best if it's fresh, but fried is just fine and nothing like the frozen calamari rings you get over here.


Grilled octopus. Not to everyone's taste due to its unsightly appearance and chewy texture, but if you like it, you really like it. I love it.


Chunky fried potatoes. Mmmm!

Eat with lots of fresh bread, and wash it all down with some nice white or rose wine, or an ice-cold beer (or two). This is what you're left with:


Bon appetit!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Wordless Wednesday 23

I took this out of my bedroom window 10 minutes ago.
It's official - summer is back :-)

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Not here, that's for sure.

Well, it turns out the weather people were right after all. Although we've not had too much rain, it's been breezy, cold and changeable - fifteen seasons per day and none of them summer. It just isn't fair :-(

On the plus side, I've just come back from Paris, where the weather was marginally better, so at least I've had some warmth and sunshine. I hope the effect lasts until our weather picks up (reportedly at the end of the week, but I'm not holding my breath).

Those of you who are enjoying a proper summer - you don't know how lucky you are!!

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Where is summer?!

We were doing so well in June, with lots of bright days and reasonable temperatures, but July has been wet and windy so far. According to the yesterday's paper, we have thunderstorms, showers and temperatures of about 20C to look forward to for the rest of the month.

I hope they're wrong.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008