Dinner With Alice: Greece Part 1

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Ah, Greece! What beautiful blue waters, crisp white walls and warm sunshine!

What brings us to Greece today?

My new monthly segment!

Dinner with Alice.

A few weeks back, while having Indian food with my good friend, Alice, I started wondering what made Indian food the way that it is.

Saucy and bright colors, spicy and savory.

Then came my idea to look into the reasons and origins of the cuisine in my favorite kinds of foods!

To kick off my first Dinner with Alice posts, 

we're going to take a look at Greek cuisine! 

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Wanna know why I think food is so great?

All the different influences!!

Greek food is no exception.

With each different country clash throughout history,

which is my more positive way of saying invasion,

came a different cultural cuisine kick!

The Romans, Venetians, Balkins, Turks, Slavs, English...they all had

influence on Greek flavors.

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But Greek style had to develop somewhere, right??

Due to the climate, Greek farmers grew mostly fruits, nuts, 

grains, legumes, veggies and oils.

Vineyards cover a lot of the hilly, rocky terrane leaving

no good grazing grounds for cattle.

Instead, Greek recipes call for a lot of poultry, lamb 

and goat, with seafood and fish.  

It's interesting to me to see what flavors and ingredients comes from

what is available to the people.

Greek is a great way to kick off Dinner with Alice!

Here are some cool facts to close this post:

1. Greek honey was made mostly from fruit and citrus nectars.

2. Most of their spices include: mint, oregano, garlic, onion, dill and bay leaves.

3. Greek recipes follow the Mediterranean Triad: grains, grapes and olives.

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What are your favorite things about Greek food?

Stay tuned next week for Dinner with Alice Part 2,

where I try out making authentic Greek recipes!

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