Izgara Sebze ve Hellim Peyniri Salata…Grilled Vegetables and Hellim Cheese Salad
My Little Healthy Greek Culinary Excursion started off to be a longer than normal journey. Overweight luggage plus an additional bag was infringing on the cost of my airline ticket. Then the flight delay of just over an hour plus a 1-hour taxi ride down the runway put me way behind my original arrival time in Istanbul, which caused me to have to wait 7-hours for the next flight to Athens.
I made the best of my time in Istanbul airport sprawled across 3-seats passed out until I woke up hungry, something you might find hard to imagine. The Istanbul
airport is very modern and is always bustling with people. The restaurants are very modern and somewhat trendy for an airport. I
Squid
stumbled upon one that had a very unique menu with cuisine I had never had before. The menu was very diversified and while not a real extensive menu I found many dishes I wanted to try. However, being I want to eat healthier on this excursion I chose a salad with arugula, grilled vegetables, and Hellim cheese, which was grilled. It is safe to say, I am hooked on this Hellim cheese. Have you ever had it? If not, you must try it.
By the time my flight took off I was more than ready to get to Athens. Only I was not looking forward to the usual long wait of going through customs however, I was pleasantly surprised it went really fast. I grabbed a cab and in 50-minutes or so arrived at my destination ready to crawl into bed. I handed out some gifts from the states, then soon after crashed.
Homemade Pizza
Saturday morning arrived and soon I was given requests…for coking that is. Pizza of all things along with hamburgers was the top of the list, certainly not my choice but I aim to please. So off to the local grocery I went and then to the local
butcher to grab some steaks for Sunday along with ground beef for Monday. You’ll be happy to know I opted for salmon for my meal on
Saturday but I will take in a juicy steak over an open fire today.
It was great to walk down the streets that became so familiar on my last stay here in Athens and walking into the butcher shop receiving such a warm greeting put a smile on my face so big I could eat a banana sideways.
Local Butcher in Athens
Saturday I did as much prep work as possible for the pizza, making the dough, cutting vegetables and salami then of course making the
sauce. Then off to bed I went to take a little power nap which lasted all of about an hour, not nearly enough. I made the pizza and soon after I was back in my bed ready to take a nap but that turned into many more hours than I had wished for. As you can imagine I was up all night until finally I just faded away at about 3am.
Steak with Hellim Cheese
Sunday came, I made a coffee and while everyone was still in bed I started making bacon, which that aroma will wake anyone up with a smile. So bacon, home fries
and scrambled eggs was the Sunday breakfast. It was so enjoyable for me to watch them all take in the bacon, which was obviously a huge hit.
I cooked, did the dishes and then decided to share my trip so far to Greece with you. Today I will make a fire and grill those steaks I got from the local butcher. They are all seasoned up with just salt and pepper. My mashed potatoes were the other request so that will be the side with either an arugula salad or a Greek salad. To be very honest, I had so much feta cheese my last visit I have almost come to remove it from my diet. Yes, I know…impossible. But I was given feta almost every day and I just have grown tired of it. But I can eat everything else in the Greek salad and be perfectly content.
Greek Church
Being I was unable to sleep last night I created this weeks menu. I am staying with Greeks who do not eat meat on Wednesdays so I have created some dishes for those days. Menu is planned and I am so excited for tomorrow to go to the local street venders right around the corner to purchase fresh produce for the week.
Today I took a little walk and visited the Greek church that is a stone throw away from where I am staying. It’s a beautiful church but I only dislike the church bells every day at about 7:15am.
Tomorrow I will hit the local market for produce and my friends did some research on more markets for me so I may hit that tomorrow too. That is all for now but I will keep you posted as I enjoy my time in the beautiful country of Greece and share it all with you.
