Greek Salad (1935)

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Sun Jun 23 01:49:58 UTC 2002


GREEK SALAD:
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GREEK TRAVEL
by Kenneth Matthews
London: Peter Davies
1935

Pg. 23:  Had I seen their less admirable national delicacies, the _kokoretsi_
or roasted sheep's guts, the _entradhes_ or fried lights, the _melitzanes_ or
stteped egg-plant, the _oktopodhi_ or most noisome cuttle-fish, I should have
realized what a happy effort of imagination had been made by the waiter...

Pg. 97:  Cafe-crawling is an inexpensive amusement...

Pg. 135:  We had _vissinada_, which is a syrup of sour cherries.

Pg. 183:  ..._baklava_ (a sticky cake) and _kouraviedhes_ (a kind of
shortbread).

Pg. 293:  She learnt what a salad was, the most ingenious of Greek salads
being a few pieces of tomato and cucumber laid side by side unskinned upon a
plate.  She was fascinated by the melange of fruit which we called ambrosia:
no Greek would dream of interfering with the natural state of any fruit
unless, possibly, to rinse the exocarp in a bowl of water.  (I have promised
the recipe for ambrosia and give it here, in what is necessarily
non-technical language: _Truncate a normal melon; scoop out the flesh and mix
it with skinned and seeded grapes and cut-up fresh figs; lose no juice; add a
dash of Samian wine; restore everything to the hollow interior of the melon
and place upon ice._  Very satisfactory.)

Pg. 311:  The drink of the people is the resinated wine called "retsinato."
(One OED hit, but not an entry--ed.)

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GREECE: HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS
by Karl Baedeker
Leipsic: Karl Baedeker
1889

   Some OED people have suggested that I type some more of this.  I won't
type the Greek letters; the transliteration should all be in italics.

Pg. xxv (Restaurants and Cafes.  Wine.  Tobacco.):  The Greek for portion is
-- (merida).
--(soupa), soup.
--(soumo), broth.
--(soupa chortaria), vegetable soup ("Julienne").
--(soupa avgolemono), soup with egg and lemon.
--(makaronia), maccaroni.
--(psito), roast meat.
--(psito vidello), roast beef.
--(psito arnaki), roast lamb.
--(hotellettes) or
--(brisola), cutlets.
--(bifteki), beefsteak.
--(chiromeri), vulg. --(sambouni, "jambon"), ham.
--(salami), --(salilsa (?--ed.)), sausage; -- (loukanika), small sausages.
----(kouopoulo), fowl.
--(frikasse), fricassee.
--(galopoulo), turkey.
--(bekatza), snipe.
--(china), goose.
--(papi), duck.
--(pedri), fish.
--(pedri mayonnes), fish mayonnaise.
--(stridia), oysters.
--(chaviari), caviare; --(lemoni), lemon.
--(chortaria), vegetables.
--(fasoulia), beans.
--(bisellia), peas.
--(kounoupidia), cauliflower.
--(krommidi), onions.
--(tomates), tomatoes.
--(tomates yemistes or yomistes), stuffed tomatoes.
--(pilfai), a kind of rich rice-pudding, like the Italian risotto.
--(atzem pilafi), "Persian pillau" of hashed mutton.
--(omletta), omelette.
--(youvarlakia), dumplings.
--(tsoutzoukakia), dumplings with garlic (skordo).
--(psomi), bread.
--(tiri), cheese.
-- or --(tiri tis Elvetias or tis Vitzeris), Gruyere cheese.
--, Roquefort cheese.
--(touloumotiri), goat's-milk cheese.
--(poudinga), pudding.
--(glikisma), sweets, pastry.
--(viskoto), biscuit.
--(chalva), a Turkish sweetmeat made of sesame and honey (--); other
sweetmeats are called baklava, galatopouriko, toukoumia (p. xxvi).
--(frouta), fruit.
--(milon), apple.
--(achladi), pear.
--(kerasia), cherries.
--(fraoules), strawberries.
--(stafilia), grapes.
--(stafides), raisins.
--(damaskina), plums.
--(rodanika), peaches.
--(verikoka), apricots.
--(amigdala), almonds.
--(sika), figs.
--(portokali), orange; mandarini, Manderine orange.
--(peponi), melon; -- (mia fetta p.), a slice of melon.

Pg.  xxvi:
   _Wine_...
   This flavour is particularly strong in the "Retsinat" of Attica (--,
krassi retsinato), which foreigners rarely learn to appreciate (see, however,
p. xxx).
(...)
   _Cafes_ (--, kafenia) of all kinds abound in Greece, from the wretched
wooden shed of the country-village up to the Atehnian establishments
handsomely fitted up in the Italian style.  The coffee (--, ena kafe, a cup
of coffee; --, dio kafedes, two cups of coffee) is generally good, but it is
invariably served in the Oriental manner, _i. e._ in small cups with the
grounds.  As a rule it is already sweetned (--, kafe gliko), but the visitor
may order wither a -- (kafe metrio), with little sugar, or a -- (kafe
scheto), with no sugar.  The usual charge is 10 c. per cup ( 16 c. at the
larger Athenian cafes).  It should be allowed to cool and "settle" and then
drunk carefully so as not to disturb the sediment at the bottom.--A favourite
refreshment of the Greeks is -- (loukoumi, pl. loukoumia), a confection
(resembling what is known in England as "Turkish  Delight") pf sweetned gum
and rose-water, often mixed with pistachio nuts.  ANother is -- (masticha), a
liquor distilled from the gums of the mastix, which forms a milky, opalescent
fluid when mixed with water.  The ordinary price for loukomi or masticha is
10 c.  The Greek for brandy is -- (raki, plo. rakia).



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