Friday morning dawned as usual in room 304. All five of us skipped down to the dorm lobby for class at 9:00am, bright eyed and ready for the day...or not. I'm pretty sure we make it a regular practice to trudge down four flights of stairs like zombies, 'cause for some un-Godly reason ACG doesn't seem to feel it necessary to equip the dorms with coffee makers. Yeah, I don't really get it either.
So down to class we went, expecting another day of discussing "Dinner with Persephone" and connecting each chapter to our own experiences. Turns out Mrs. Dr. had a completely different agenda for Friday; fortunately, it was enough to get us up and going, despite our lack of caffeinated beverages.
Mrs. Dr. surprised us by sacrificing her apartment for a cooking workshop. There were four stations, each containing the ingredients for a delicious Greek dish. The teams rotated stations after completion, so we all got to experiment with the staple ingredients of Greek food. Throughout this entire ordeal, it was interesting to see all of the dishes that could be made with olive oil, feta cheese, Greek yogurt, olives, garlic, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, salt and pepper, dill, oregano, and lemon juice.
These are the ingredients that Greek families always have on hand in the kitchen, for with them you can make virtually any Greek delicacy. It's so amazing, though, because even though most of the recipes involve the same ingredients, everything tasted so different! For instance, the first station we went to required the ingredients for a Greek salad, while the next resulted in Tzatziki, followed by some sort of red pepper dip and yummy cheese pies. Everything put its own unique twist on simple ingredients, and we reaped the rewards at the end.
 |
| Tzatziki |
 |
| Greek Salad |
 |
| Red Pepper Dip |
 |
| Cheese Pies |
With regards to this cooking session, we've been discussing little cultural differences we've noticed during our every day routine in class, and one of them is the decidedly small fridge. Now, I'm not talking a dorm fridge, but let's just say Kenmore appliances takes the cake. With such a small refrigerator, it's difficult to store all of the food you need for the next week or two. So far we've explained this with the fact that Greeks tend to go to the store more frequently during the week. Grocery shopping is more about the relationships with local butchers or bakers or super market owners rather than the anonymity Publix excels in. The Greek people go shopping primarily to visit with friends and family. Also, most people walk to the nearest stores, so carrying back a ton of grocery bags would be excruciatingly difficult.
After this workshop, though, I've come to another conclusion regarding the itty-bitty fridge situation. True, die-hard Greeks really and truly just don't need it. As long as their pantry is stocked with these key ingredients, families have the means to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner all day e'ry day. As Americans, we're accustomed to going power shopping, getting everything we need for the rest of the week. Here, people are more content buying certain ingredients to fiddle with during the week rather than coming up with something new every night. Many thanks, Lady Kaplan, now I'll be able to make more than microwaved vegetables and George Foreman grilled cheeses next semester!
 |
| Family Night. *Insert Mrs. Puff voice* "Extra Credit!" |
 |
| The spoils of war, made with our blood, sweat, and tears. And love. Lots of love. |
No comments:
Post a Comment