I never met an octopus I didn't like to eat. Although, I tend to favor Spanish recipes over Greek. Long story but I first learned how to cook Octopus from a Spanish trained chef in Connecticut. That's why. When grilling or bringing octopus though, it hardly makes any difference. You really only need concern yourself with finding a good octopus. I live in a desert now, so that can be tricky.
2
I’m always tempted but hedge off octopus. Too many National Geographic documentaries.
5
Gorgeous photos, of my favorite cuisine on the Planet. The spring Diet starts tomorrow, I'm saving this, for drooling purposes.
Thank you. No, really. I'll need this.
6
Where's Ligaya?
3
I highly recommend this Greek Tavern . The food is amazing and always fresh.I especially love the fish
( always fresh) and octopus. If you are ever in the neighborhood drop by .You won’t be disappointed.You will be coming back again and again like I do!!
8
Applause to Ms. Bull for the best article on Greek cuisine not-for-tourists and to Ms. Huang for the photos.
The fried branzino looks gorgeous, the fried calamari superb (for me, the rings only, no tentacles), and the octopus is the most appetizing I have ever seen.
On the use of feta: some of the varieties in food stores are too salty (a usual choice of French, Bulgarian, Greek, and US feta). A hard white cheese, Munster blanc from Alsace, may perhaps be adopted in the Greek cuisine. The only difficulty is that it is very difficult to find even in Alsace, where they let the Munster or Münster mature to complete softness.
4
@Tuvw Xyz
The branzino was grilled.
Good luck getting the Greeks -- who, as you know as a classicist, had a strong civilization while some Europeans were still "running around painting themselves blue" -- to adopt a French cheese in place of theirs. The EU may rejected by countries for any number of reasons, valid or not, but don't expect its protectionist regulations on cheese to relax any time soon.
2
Sounds like a good old-fashioned Astoria Greek restaurant; but, seriously, what makes a sausage "breach like a whale from its casing"? Especially when the owner sources his sausage from Costco?
7
@MG
Just asking do you know for certain he gets the sausage from Costco?
1
The last line of the article said that he gets it from Costco
1
The sausage referred to in the closing sentences was an "off-menu" item, not the loukaniko mentioned earlier in the review.
4
I would go to Taverna Kos just for the authentic Greek Salad, made they way it should be. Every Greek restaurant I've been to around central Jersey insists on making it with iceberg or romaine lettuce. They should be ashamed to call it "Greek." The seafood pictured here looks amazing as does everything else!
7
I think most Greek places use lettuce in their salads because Americans expect it and would complain if it weren't there. The same probably goes for pita bread, which I never saw in Greece (bread on the table there was always baguette-style). The Greeks, being non-nomadic, have always baked risen bread. Nomads like the early Hebrews and contemporary Arabic-speakers eat unleavened, or pita, bread. (Dough has to be kept in a quiet place or it won't rise, so it can't be produced by travelling folks.)
3
@CKent
Yes for the inauthenticity of pita on the Greek table, but no on its being unleavened. Contemporary recipes for pita do include a leavener, most often yeast, sometimes "old dough" left from a previous batch of bread. See, for example, Flatbreads and Flavors: A Baker's Atlas by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, or A Baker's Odyssey by Greg Patent. The authors of these books gathered recipes either in the source country or from immigrants to the U.S.
It would indeed be great of more Greek restaurants here tapped into the wealth of breads traditional in the mother country. But I'll take inauthentic pita over cottony versions of baguette-style bread any day.
Pita is a leavened flatbread.
I'd supposed there rules against using the adjective "lush" in restaurant reviews.
Greek food is often excellent, but this writing says "don't go".
3
Understated simplicity in cooking is deceptive and to me a sign of culinary skill. Technique while using the proper balance of a few choice ingredients is true Epicurean magic. The food looks terrific and truly delicious. Bravo!
19
Simplicity absolutely, but also only the freshest ingredients!
Seems obvious but many terrific places start a downhill slide when ingredients are compromised. Simplicity dies without freshness.