Not food related but am devastated by the multiple large earthquakes in Crete this week. These villages are fragile. Sending all positive thoughts.
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Yes, thinking of the earthquakes there as well…hopefully there wasn’t too much damage sustained, or worse, injuries suffered. Not the kind of excitement Presunto needs on vacation, for sure.
Reminds me of a driving trip to Southern California and Disneyland a couple decades ago. After our 10 days there, found myself breathing a sigh of relief that there’d been no earthquakes as we were driving out of state. Had only been home a few days when we had a 6.9 quake here, kind of strange - misplaced worry, I guess. Some scattered damage in the area, but saving grace was that the epicenter was deep in the Puget Sound. We are on a major subduction zone, and a bigger one could happen anytime. 
Hoping that this topic will be left open for awhile after the quarter ends. I tend to cook Greek food more in the fall, winter, and spring, except for salads, that is.
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Ernie, minestra is what my family calls the orzo/ kritharaki pasta.
My family is also Greek Californian- I suspect minestra is what Greeks in the Bay Area have been calling orzo for 70plus years. The Greeks in Toronto don’t use the term minestra much.
We call the braised orzo and meat dish giouvetsi- which is called gevech or various equivalents in Romania and Bulgaria. The giouvetsi refers to the pan itself, just like casserole itself in French, and saganaki in Greek, rather than the ingredients.
Minestra is related to minestrone etymologically. Minestrone would mean a big minestra.
I have seen minestra on menus in Greece and Italy, and it’s usually been used to describe a dish or soup that’s got a mixture of ingredients, but doesn’t resemble giouvetsi.
Here’s an Italian minestra
Looks like the Maltese also make a minestra.
https://www.amaltesemouthful.com/maltese-minestra-wonderful-vegetable-soup/
Interestingly, there are quite a few Greek Manestra recipes with tomato online, when spelled Manestra. Some are pasta main course dishes, some are pasta soups, some are vegetarian.
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Goodness, I forgot about this thread.
I’m not originally a California Greek–I grew up on Long Island, NY. One thing I found strange on moving here (first Los Angeles, then the Bay Area) is that there aren’t any inexpensive Greek restaurants. We have a few high-end places that are good, but that braised lamb shank that I made above, for around $8.00, costs around $40.00 at one of them. There is a Persian deli and an Indian food stall that have the shanks for around $14, in their own style with rice.
I will continue to post here, as the occasion arises. I still have some very nice lamb chops and a small leg of lamb in the freezer, and imported Greek branzino is readily available (for roasting, since I don’t have a grill and my broiler doesn’t work anymore).
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When I was at the Vintage Oaks shopping center in Novato recently, I noticed a “coming soon” sign for a chain called Nick the Greek’s. I have no idea if it’s any good, but one lives in hope.
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I like your idea. That way a cuisine of the quarter thread can have a useful life that goes beyond a calendar quarter.
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Hi Ernie, my family used to run restaurants in northern CA. We tended to go out for Greek food in the Bay Area when we would visit.
I haven’t been recently- my last visit was for a Greek wedding in 2017.
In 2010, when my uncle was slipping, we went to a few inexpensive Greek restaurants that were down-to-earth, not high end. I remember one was in Alameda, and it was fairly dated (not sure if it was Troy, I thought it was closer to the water, so maybe it was another restaurant).
I remember going to a basic Greek resto on Piedmont Ave (Simply Greek- mostly souvlaki, gyros, salad), and another one in a strip plaza in Orinda ( Petra Cafe ) Of course, things would have changed over the past 11 years.
My cousin who lives outside Los Gatos shops for Greek groceries at a Greek market in San Jose. Dio Deka in San Jose is a nice upscale Greek restaurant that I’ve visited a couple times.
I guess church festivals are the place to get inexpensive Greek food. I believe the Oakland Church Festival used to take place in May.
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Hi Diana. I noticed your user name here and on other forums and I thought about those honey-soaked oil cookies, but I guess they’re spelled “finikia”. Simply Greek is still there, and Troy has a couple of restaurants, but they’re mostly the souvlaki/gyro kinds of places, with the requisite-but-not-quite-Greek falafels. The Greek product store by the cathedral in San Francisco closed years ago.
And yes, the church festivals can’t be beat. The one in Oakland, always the weekend after Mothers’ Day, has been cancelled for two years now.
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It’s a transliteration, so phoenikia and finikia are both correct spellings in English for the Eastern Aegean regional word for melomakarona.
That’s my handle, named after the cookie. I’ve been using the handle since 2006, when they were my favourite cookie.
I got into a disagreement with a Peloponesian Canadian about Finikia/Phoenikia. He claimed they were different than Melomakarona. Maybe a distinct Peloponesian Finikia exists. I’ve never seen it if it does.
They’re the same thing as Melomakarona in the Aegean islands . Same recipe, potato, potatto.
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My grandmother used to make big batches of them. I made them once, in college, and an upstate NY friend who baked a lot was horrified that they called for both butter and oil.
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There’s both butter-only versions and oil-only versions, as well.
The oil-only versions are for Lent and some fast days. The olive oil-only versions are surprisingly good.
I’ve never had a version made with oil and butter.
I know next to nothing about Greek food but after a thread on another food forum I realized I missed Simply Greek’s gyros. There’s a lot of shawarma in our area but not many Greek style gyros with yogurt based dressing instead of tahini.
Weirdly, the thing I liked the most at Simply Greek was the Papa Xristos: Seasoned pork, grilled onions, American cheese, sriracha served in a warm pita with tomatoes & tzatziki.
It sounds like an abomination and I’m not even sure why I tried it the first time but it actually sold me on the benefits of American cheese in some cases (which I was staunchly against before). We tried twice to visit the Pleasanton location on recent trips to the bay area but it didn’t work out each time.
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Haven’t tried American cheese in a gyro, but open to trying it!
Shawarma has become easier to find than a good souvlaki or gyro where I live, too. I like both.
There’s also the Halifax donair, made with pressed and formed gyro meat, and a sweet white sauce that contains sugar, garlic and evaporated milk, I think.
https://www.foodnetwork.ca/shows/great-canadian-cookbook/blog/the-delicious-history-of-the-halifax-donair/
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It’s super messy but it’s delicious somehow- something about the consistency of the tzatziki as a vehicle/cooling note to the sriracha and mixing with the cheese works surprisingly well. Plus I like that it’s actually chunks of meat rather than a loaf type of meat (which I also like).
I heard about this on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives! Sorry if that’s where your link leads, it doesn’t work for me for some reason even when I google and try to reach it myself. DDD had an interesting season or two when a bunch of the episodes took place in Canada (finally). I wanted to try the donair and cod cakes from the place they featured.
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Just wondering if anyone has made their own pressed gyro meat? Have seen recipes, but haven’t tried making. Preference of course would be spit roasted lamb, thinly sliced…but willing to give the other a try, especially since I happily eat it at the Greek Festival, and the few local places around here. At home, it’s been seasoned ground lamb, formed into oblong patties, grilled and on flatbread (or thick flour tortillas) with accompaniments. Works…
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The Halifax donair needs to be made with the processed gyro meat IMO.
Just tomatoes, onions, processed meat and sauce
I like both the processed meat and stacked meat gyro. In my mind , it’s like being able to enjoy a fast food burger or a fancy burger.
Some relatively authentic gyros places where I live stack their own meat, and roll some fries into the pita, which is common in Greece.
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I want ALL of it. Every version.
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