Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

I love cured and smoked tongue. In Egypt and most of the other countries I've lived in, I used to find it very easily but now in Greece...can't.  So I guess I'll have to do it myself.

Grilled Little Skewers Patatas Bravas T he word Tapas is Espanish. Just a little joke for you guys: from what I understand the Spanish do not have any words beginning with the letter S. They have to put an E before it. I found that out when a Spanish firm I represented in Greece made some calling cards for me and since my name is Stelio, or Stelios whatever, they printed my name Estelio. That was really funny giving my calling card to Greeks. Ha! Ha! So tapas is the Spanish word for Meze,  hors d'oeuvre, appetizers. It all started when people stopped by bars to have a drink during their lunch break.  As Mediterranean countries have it not to drink on an empty stomach, they ordered something to nibble at during the drink.  As time went by, the bars prepared more complex appetizers to the point people stopped having lunch as such and ended up eating a variety of Tapas for lunch or dinner or in between lunch and dinner.  I would like to share with you three I have in mind.

B lack noodles are very tasty, interesting, and impressive. They are made with the black "ink" of cuttlefish. The coral red color of the Alaskan Pacific wild salmon roe, or caviar if you wish, makes a beautiful antitheses in colors almost as interesting as Stendhal's (real name Marie-Henri Beyle) book "Le Rouge et le Noir" in French, the Red and the Black in English.

 This Breakfast Is Dedicated To Irini From Sfakiá in Crete. S í - gli - nó is a specialty of the island of Crete.  Siglino is cured and smoked pork tenderloin pieces preserved in fat to last all winter long, that is why it cannot be found during summer. Irini, a good friend of Barbara's (my daughter) from University brought it specially for me from her home town Sfakiá (south of Haniá) in Crete when she came back from her summer vacation. This is the reason I am dedicating this breakfast to her.

I am so happy I got myself a mandolin because it was getting boring and tiresome cutting things by hand in the kitchen. It took time and effort. Now in two minutes I can scallop 2 kg of potatoes any thickness I like and they are all going to be of the same thickness.

D r. Osman Oz, Emmy Award Winner who appeared on Oprah's shows very often has written an article on this week's issue of Time magazine telling us what to and what not to eat according to the latest research on diets.  Omega 3 is one of the substances we have to ingest but in moderation. So that is where fresh salmon comes in. Of course it is much better to be able to find fresh, wild salmon caught in the North Sea or the north Atlantic but the ones found in fisheries is a good substitute. 

T here isn't one doctor in this whole wide world who will not tell you to stay away from ice cream. What they actually mean is Commercial Ice Creams. Only God knows what the industries put in there. So we have finally decided, at the end of summer, to invest in buying a small ice cream machine. Home made ice cream, if consumed wisely is definitely healthier apart from all the eggs, the cream and the sugar!

September 11th is a sad day.  The last thing on anybody's mind is food... so there will be no recipe today in memory of all those who lost their lives that day. Our thoughts also reach out to their families who are living with their loss. The Mamatis Family