My Night with Peter Minakis

http://kalofagas.ca/

Peter Minakis of Kalofagas.ca-Greek Food & Beyond

Well, it was more like "our" night with Peter Minakis since my husband was along. I thought I'd make a somewhat scandalous title since earlier in the day that we were supposed to meet Peter, his status on facebook mentioned our plans and included the phrase, "scandalous photos to follow"...very funny. Well, there aren't any scandalous photos but there is evidence that we've met.

A little more than two and a half years ago, when I was sitting at my computer starting my blog I wouldn't have imagined that I would be meeting and keeping in contact with so many amazing people. Sure, I've read the blogs and commented but I had never expected an ongoing conversation about all things Greek and more importantly, food. Although I'm not technically a foodie, I love food and I do actually use the recipes and suggestions that my Greek foodie friends have to offer, since Greek cooking wasn't a part of my life until I married Kosta. Well, actually cooking wasn't a part of my life until I met Kosta, but that's another post in itself.

As I skim the sites of the Greek food bloggers for new recipes to try, I often find myself enthralled in the history, stories and anticdotes offered with the recipes. What I really love is reading a post of a foodie with a sense of humor, since I love to laugh and can't wipe this permenant snicker off of my face. Peter's site has  everything that I look for and more. What's more, is that he's so personable and does try to address everyone that comments or comes in contact with him somehow. I'm not sure how he does it, but, he does.

After following his site for a while I realized that his  family summer home in Greece is very near our home. So, we exchanged tweets and agreed that it would be nice to get together when he was in town. So, after he arrived we set up a date and that was that.

Everything was set that day, we decided that we would stay in his village, Nea Kallikratia, for dinner and all that was left for us to do was to show up. Well, it turns out that we had a pop-in that evening. Typical. We had plans (for once) and as things are running smoothly, someone pops in. It was supposed to be a five minute visit and it turned out to be over an hour. Great, I still had to get dressed. So, I called Peter to tell him that we would be late. Ever patient Peter was understanding since first, he's Greek and second, he's in Greece where almost everyone is late for almost everything.

We met Peter in front of  a church in his village, parked our car and enjoyed a nice walk toward the seafront.

We started the night with drinks at a beach bar. The water was so calm, the ambient music was perfect and the bar wasn't overcrowded, perfect!

After our drink we headed toward one of Peter's favorite Psarotavernas, one he's been dining at for as long as he's been spending his summers here. Look at how happy he looks! What a perfect "foodie" picture, I  think.

As you can see, there's always octopus on the table when Greek seafood lovers are out. It was delicious!

Here's something different...I chose grilled eggplant over eggplant salad and this is what was served. Roasted eggplant with melted feta, lots of garlic and parsley. I have never had this before and it was scrumptious.

Here we are with Peter. The picture was taken with his camera since I failed to get one. Thank you Peter!

He also took a picture of us, it's rare that we have someone available to take a good picture of us and with such a great background . We had a wonderful dinner, wonderful conversation and now, we have a wonderful new friend. Thank you Peter, we can't wait to see you again next summer!

Related Links:

Kalofagas.ca 
Greek Food and Beyond
Grilled Sardine Fillets With Chips ( here he shares another great recipe along with his summer routine)
Kalofagas on Twitter
Pay it Back with Food

Octopus weekend

Summer is over and I realized that I haven't shared our adventures in octopus spearing...and eating. I know that many of my readers love that our kids are learning the skills of fishing and spearing octopus and what they love more is to see photos of our kids with the octopuses. Honestly, octopus is our their favorite choice whenever we go to a taverna, so it's always great when Kosta can spear a few for us to enjoy at home. One weekend in early August , Kosta speared four of them...two on Saturday in beautiful Halkidiki and the second two on Sunday at a beach just outside of Thessaloniki. Here are some photos from our weekend...

Saturday

Yia Yia and Foti were swimming in the area that Kosta was hunting octopus so, naturally, when he speared one he handed off to Yia Yia so that we could start to prepare it for our dinner.

Before we slam the octopus on the rock to tenderize it, the kids usually get time to examine it closely. They're always captivated.

Izabella loves when the octopus still has suction and sticks to her.

Here's Foti working on tenderizing the octopus. Izabella & I did the hard work as we took turns slamming the octopus against a rock.

Enjoying the fruits of our labor. Can you see the octopus next to the wine? It's the same one that we caught a few hours earlier.

Octopus was a perfect addition to the fish that we grilled.

Sunday

This octopus that was speared on Sunday was a bit smaller.

Although Alexandra loves to eat octopus, she had never handled one until this day. She was completely enamoured by it and examined it closely for a while.

This weekend our forecast looks promising and hopefully, we'll have time to go to the beach. And, I really hope that Kosta will have great luck and spear a few more octopuses!!

Have a great weekend!!

Related links:

Octopus anyone?

Octopus pics

1st Octopus of the Season

Friday evening at the beach

Octopus (Wikipedia)

Gorgeous Halkidiki

Friday Evening at the Beach

Living so close to the sea gives us ample opportunity for discovery. This last Friday evening our neighbors were on their way to the beach for an octopus expedition and they invited us along. While Mr. Neighbor snorkels for octopus Mrs. Neighbor spends her time quietly on the beach either reading or picking up the trash. (There's always plenty of trash, you'll see.) Sometimes they'll take Iza & Foti with them to keep Mrs. Neighbor company. I'm always invited but I usually decline as I always have so much to do and I can't fathom spending my time lollygagging on the beach. Well, this time I decided to join them and even Alexandra was able to join in the fun. We got our collecting jars and our bags and met them at the beach.


As soon as we arrived, the kids started digging up shells and sifting through the sand.

A little while later, Iza spotted a blueish jellyfish at the shoreline. Can you see it? Of course, we had to get it for her.

There's always enough garbage to collect and use for viewing our specimens.

The kids were thrilled with this discovery as we haven't seen a jellyfish this big all summer.

When Mr. Neighbor emerged-his net was full. Yes, it's all octopus. At the time he didn't have a count of how many he caught. Last week he speared fifteen in just under an hour. Kosta has definitely met his match!

Off in the distance there were two men fishing near a fire to keep themselves warm. It looked so relaxing. It's too bad there's so much garbage on the beach. See the garbage?!

The kids wanted to see how many fish that they had caught so we walked over to find out. At that time, they hadn't caught any. But, their night had just begun. Armed with their beer, cigarettes and a fire they were set to last for hours.

The night might have been young for the fishermen but it wasn't for us. So, we gathered our things and headed home. On the way to our car the local sheep herder passed us with about one hundred sheep. The kids just loved that!

Two big bags of trash were collected and left at the proper trash bin. That didn't even put a dent in it but it's better than nothing. The kids were happy to have new shells and also to have inspected a jellyfish.

As soon as we arrived home the kids went to play hide and seek with Mrs. Neighbor. We enjoyed some chocolate and then it was time to go home and get cleaned up for bed. I was gifted three octopuses. They're in the freezer with the other three that we were gifted last week. It'll be really nice to bring those out in the middle of winter.

In the end, I'm happy that I took the opportunity to join our neighbors at the beach. I'll have to make sure to join them again instead of just sending the kids along. It was refreshing.

1st Octopus of the Season

I think that a lot of my readers were thrilled with my first octopus post from last summer so I owe it to all of you to share the news of our first octopus of the season. This octopus was speared by Kosta on June 15-Father's Day. What a great present for him! He was only in the water for about 10 minutes when he emerged with his catch. I find that amazing. I've snorkeled a lot and I've still never seen an octopus hiding under a rock or swimming. I've been trying to spot one for 18 years. Maybe one day I'll see one but I'll leave the spearing to Kosta and in the future, Foti.

It was interesting to see how the kids reacted to the octopus this year. Izabella seemed a little apprehensive to handle it this time and Foti wanted to take it from Kosta as soon as it came out of the water. He's definitely a future octopus hunter.

He even volunteered to slam the octopus on the rock in order to tenderize it. I'm glad because I didn't really feel like doing it since my designer sunglasses were stolen and it wouldn't look quite right unless I was wearing them. Look at how seriously Foti was doing his work!

The kids also listened intently while Kosta explained where the tooth of the octopus was, how the suctions worked and why the octopus squirts ink.

This one was a fighter and was trying its best to get away. Although it's delicious I have to admit that sometimes, just sometimes I'm not thrilled watching the process. I forget quickly though because I love to eat them and I think that my husband is a master at handling them.

I think that we all posed with it this time. Here's one of Izabella's poses. She slammed the octopus on the rock a few times but it was too hard for her, she said that it was too heavy.

After we were finished tenderizing the octopus a little boy that had been watching us came over to show us the starfish that he found. I thought that it was sweet but my kids weren't impressed after having handled an octopus. I still think that it was sweet and I told them to be kind to him. I assume that he was vacationing with his parents since he didn't speak Greek or English.

When we finished at the beach we were ready to make dinner. We brought fish with us that we had planned on grilling and we added the octopus to our menu. It took longer on the grill but it was worth the wait...and I can't wait for the next one. There's nothing like fresh seafood in the summer!

***I'd like to thank our new friend Phivos Nicolaidis for featuring a picture of Foti on his travel site. His site is extremely informative, beautifully descriptive and he has great music also! Check it out! Thank you Phivos!***