My visit to Greece this past May consisted of two parts: the first part was spent attending the Sani Gourmet Festival and the second was with family and friends in Thessaloniki. I stayed at my uncle’s house  in Elaiones, a suburb that sits overlooking Thessaloniki on one side and nearby Panorama – still lording high [...]

This recipe comes courtesy of a neighbor of ours in Halkidiki, where my family’s summer home is located in Greece. Halkidiki is located in northern Greece, consists of three peninsulas that are situated just east of Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki. One day I went to a neighbor’s home that had some new-born puppies that another [...]

During last year’s visit to Greece, I visited the largest island in Greece (and Mediterranean), located south of mainland Greece. My journey to Crete began from the opposite end of Greece, in the northernmost province of Macedonia. I left our summer home in Halkidiki and headed towards Thessaloniki (30 minutes) then took a train south [...]

Last year, I read a book about the Fall of Constantinople – figured it would be a pretty good way to prepare for my second visit to Istanbul (and it did). In the book (besides reading about the many battles), I was also interested in the subplot of this period in history – the psyche [...]

I grew up having not one great cook in the household but two! My dad emigrated to Canada in the 1950′s, on the encouragement of his older brother and uncle, Pantelis ( the fellow I was named after). Like many other immigrant stories, families left their homelands en-masse to greener pastures and in the case [...]

Inspiration arrives via many avenues but the sweetest, most satisfying are born of fond childhood memories. My dad worked the restaurant business all his life. He never worked in a “Greek” restaurant per se but one knew a Greek was in the kitchen or the owners were Greek with one look at the menu. Souvlaki [...]

Your first question probably is, “why is this guy making ice cream in the middle of winter”? The second question may be, “what’s the difference between vanilla ice cream and French Vanilla”? Third question, “why bother making my own ice cream when I can buy good ice cream at the market”? All good questions  – [...]

A fruit that’s still available in the Winter, is abundant in Canada and delicious almost all year’ round is the apple. It’s one of my favourite fruits: crispy, crunchy, juicy, sweet and sour and good for ya! Besides the usual “an apple a day will keep the Doctor away”, apples are also versatile as they [...]

Happy New Year everyone! This is the first post of 2011 and it’s a dish that takes me back to Thessaloniki, perhaps it will trigger some of your memories? I first had a Kotopita (chicken pie) at a taverna in Thessaloniki, in the Agia Sophia area in fact. A Kotopita is made of  filling of [...]

The first time I ever tried Ladotyri was during my visit to the island of Naxos. Located in the Cyclades islands, Naxos is the largest [...]