Good food, great company

OUT AND ABOUT

The taxi driver at Athens airport had been waiting seven hours for his first fare of the day.  That was me — at 6pm in the evening — and the set fare of 35 euros for a ride into the city wasn’t going to cover his daily rental to the car owner.  His taxi was number 380 in the queue – they have to line up and take their turn for fares and there are just too many taxis.  This young guy had a sick father, a brother in the army hardly earning and a doctor mother — laid off from her job when the public hospital closed due to ‘austerity’ measures. Depression in Greece is palpable and with 30 percent unemployment, 50 percent of youth unemployed and no sign of development or a way out of the crisis, he is one of many worried whether he has a future in his own country.

Scarily, in the midst of desperate times, ideologies like fascism often become attractive and a new neo-Nazi party, the Golden Dawn is now the third largest party in Greece. But while I was there we marked ‘Ohi Day’, Anniversary of the “No” — a day which commemorates the rejection of fascism, when the Greeks said NO to Mussolini and refused to allow Axis forces to enter Greek Territory, thus marking Greece’s entry into World War II.

On October 28 the Greek population took to the streets, irrespective of political affiliation, shouting ‘ochi’ (No). From 1942, it was celebrated as Ohi Day. It’s a big national holiday, still honoured with pride and passion, which sees parades of school children, Greek flags flying and small village squares full of the scent of meat cooking over coals and families eating together under the olive trees on ancient cobbles.
I spent a week in rural Greece, in a place where many families still keep the old traditions, are in tune with the rhythm of the land, and celebrate the harvests and rites of life’s passages in parea — a Greek word which translates to being in good company, enjoying good food, life and laughter.

My Greek friend is the embodiment of parea and one evening she cooked us pastitsio, a delicious pasta concoction made up of layers of gently spiced minced meat, pasta and thick cheesy sauce. In the village the shops are still old fashioned. No ready minced beef here. The butcher cut the meat on a huge wooden block, fashioned from a complete tree trunk mounted on legs — and then passed it through the mincing machine — electric — before wrapping it in paper.  Such a relief to avoid the dreaded polystryene pollutant.

Pastitsio involves three phases.  First the meat sauce, browned in olive oil (from her own olives) with onions, cinnamon, fragrant bay leaves growing wild on the land and chopped tomatoes. Phase two is the rich cheesy sauce made with butter and cornflour, milk and lots of cheese. Good if you have a Greek one like kefalotiri. Secret to it puffing up in the oven is the addition of a couple of eggs. Then cook the pasta — in this case penne, but any short, hollow pasta will work — and layer it all together — pasta, followed by the meat, then another layer of pasta and the thick sauce poured over it all with some extra grated cheese on top. Bake for about an hour in a hot oven till puffed and browning. It’s better if eaten at room temperature and needs nothing more than a green salad and a glass of retsina — the distinctive Greek wine imbued with pine tree resin.
Yamas!  (Our health)
– g.jeke@yahoo.com