Greek Festival Pointers - Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Greek Festival Pointers – Part 1 -by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

One of the first articles I wrote for the Monterey (CA) County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000) when I was a food writer for the newspaper was about Monterey’s popular Greek festival.  My family regularly attended the Greek Festival when my daughter Florence was little to pick up our box of Greek desserts and cookies.

Parts of the article I wrote about the Greek Festival have shown up in the newspaper over the years, but the following is the original article with slight format modification:

Have no Fear of Greek Gifts

Greek sweets that you cannot find in restaurants should make any visitor to the Greek Festival want to start lunch with dessert.

For Greeks, desserts symbolize joy and good wishes; you always take them to a friend’s home, for example, “to sweeten the friendship.”  With thoughts of festivalgoers tasting the “sweetness” of Greek culture, the ladies of Monterey’s Greek community have been busy making traditional foods for weeks.

Reasonable individuals will start with a plateful of desserts and cookies from the following offerings:

-galataboureko – a custard filled pastry whose crust is built up with layers of thin phyllo pastry softened with melted butter

-karidopeta – cake made with ground walnuts instead of flour and flavored with orange zest and topped off with a syrup made of sugar, lemon, and cinnamon

-koulourakia – shiny twisted butter cookies

-kourabiedes – small crescent-shaped butter cookies sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar

-baklava – You can find this diamond-shaped pastry made with ground walnuts and cinnamon and topped off with lemony syrup in restaurants, but baklava has a different soul when a yia yia, Greek grandma, lovingly makes it.

Telling anyone about melamakarona cookies poses a major ethical dilemma for me, because I want them all for myself.  I used to eat these all the time at my Greek college roommate’s home when I was a student at the University of Chicago.

The spirit of hospitality that the Greeks are famous for, though, requires me to divulge the melamakarona are butter cookies flavored with clove, cinnamon, and orange juice that are dunked in a hot syrup of honey and lemon.  Before they cool, you sprinkle ground walnuts on top of them.

The best way to eat any of these desserts is with a cup of strong Greek coffee.

After indulging in dessert, you can walk around and look at craft items for sale that you always find at paniyeri (festivals) in Greece as you watch folk dancing and listen to music.

The Aegeans band will regale you with dimotiká, folk songs, recounting stories of love, politics, war, and lament whose origins go back to the 15^th century and the Fall of Constantinople, capital of the Greek Byzantine Empire.

End of Part 1.

To be continued…

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Exchange Student in Mexico Day by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Exchange Student in Mexico Day by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

In high school, I could eat my body weight in food and was a welcome guest at my Mexican friend B’s home where they teased me about not eating enough.

Whenever I had been invited to lunch, B. would show up to escort me on the bus from my apartment in downtown Detroit to the west side of town where he lived.

“I can take the bus alone to your house,” I said as we sat down.

He would always tell me that a young lady always gets escorted when she has been invited to lunch.

“That’s the Mexican way,” he would say as I sat in my seat by the window.

I felt like an exchange student for the day when I entered the house and did not know how many times to kiss people on the cheeks.  In my home, we only gave each other bear hugs and pats on the back.

The five-foot high painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe in her blue cloak with golden stars on it seemed mysterious to me, a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant.  B’s parents only spoke Spanish, which made me feel like I was in a foreign country, too.

I was always surprised how meals in my friend’s home did not resemble the combinations of tacos, tostadas, and enchiladas that I liked to eat in restaurants with what I thought was hot sauce.

We would usually start our meals with familiar looking sour cream, guacamole, and warm flour tortillas typical of northern Mexico as an appetizer.

My friend’s mother puréed avocado, tomato, onion, cilantro and jalapeño peppers into her version of guacamole.

“Dairy products kill the flames,” my friend said the first time I innocently delved into the jalapeño-guacamole.

Then, we would have soup.  Looking through cookbooks years later, I found a recipe for my favorite corn soup from the northern Mexican state of Sonora.  The Sonoran soup has squares of green and sweet red pepper and whole ears of baby corn colorfully flavoring a chicken soup.

After the soup, we would eat one of my favorite dishes – tamales.  Steamed masa flour surrounded the spicy pork in these tamales wrapped up in a corn husk wrapper for steaming.

The savory pork was preserved in its own fat like carnitas and was seasoned with oregano, cumin, coriander, onions, and carrots.

I helped make my favorite dessert – buñuelos.  To make these we sat in the kitchen and pulled the elastic dough over our knees and stretched the dough into rounds that were fried and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

I loved the buñuelos with coffee and knowing that the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe was also my birthday.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Learning Portuguese Ways by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Learning Portuguese Ways by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My favorite country that I have not visited is Portugal.

My first impressions came in the form of a gift – a small, white lacy baby dress for newborn Florence.  Ironing is a way of life in genteel Portugal and France.

The ladies in my father-in-law’s company sent the dress along with a bottle of Portugal’s vinho verde (green wine) to celebrate Florence’s birth.  The wine was white.  Verde refers to the wine’s being young.

Vinho verde tastes best in spring and summer, which coincided perfectly with Florence’s May birth.  The taste reminded me of Gatorade minus the sugar with alcohol and carbonation added.  I thought it would be good at the beach with grilled fish.

“You don’t need Chablis to go sunbathing,” I said to myself.

I have always done a lot to make sure my family and I have knowledge of other cultures.  Originally, I did this for careers in international business, but now this way of life fits in perfectly with multiculturalism in the US, too, as many traditions are maintained here.

People in the US drink vinho verde, too.  I discovered that it is one of Portugal’s many wines as I read Jan Reed’s The Wines of Portugal during a Wisconsin winter.  Reed writes that vinho verde obtains its acidic taste from grapes being raised high above ground; in that position, they do not received reflected heat from the soil to have a higher sugar content.

The Portuguese make vinhos maduros (mature wines) from the low lying grapes using the same winemaking methods that you find in France.  I regretted not having the chance to try these other wines like Dâo (pronounced “don”), Bairrada, and Douro.  They were non-existant in Wisconsin in the late 1990s when we lived there.

What I lacked in the wine cellar, I made up for in the kitchen.  I wanted to know more about Portugal, so I made a trip to the library and checked out The Food of Portugal by Jean Anderson.

This mini encyclopedia of sausages, wines, cheese, and regular fare left me determined to take a gastronomic vacation.

I made a soup called canja, which calls for chicken stock, onion wedges, parsley, lemon zest, and mint.  After 40 minutes of boiling, I cut the chicken into julienne strips and added rice along with lemon juice salt and pepper.  I tasted it and thought I had made true Portuguese comfort food.

Laurent did not like the sour soup, so I tried more savory recipes from The Food of Portugal.

I liked a recipe for pork chops that required rubbing paprika, garlic, and freshly ground black pepper into the pork and marinating it overnight in white wine.

I browned the pork chops in olive oil and reduced the marinade to form a gravy.  Laurent liked these.  I did not mention that these were Portuguese.

After we moved to California, I never thought I would see real, live Portugal.  But, then, Portugal entered my world when we went to mass one day at Saint Angela’s in Pacific Grove, California.

As we were walking up to the church, a young brown haired girl dressed in a long, white dress wearing her hair up in a bun with a crystal tiara was hold a white satin pillow with a miniature state of Our Lady of Fatima on it.  We followed her into the church with the Knights of Columbus in purple- feathered hats and swords at their sides lining the walls.

Father Jerry announced that the day’s mass honored Monterey’s Portuguese community, and that we would use our “gift of tongues” to understand the mass in Portuguese.

A Portuguese marching choir and singers sang the responses.  I read in the church bulletin that Our Lady of Fatima would be carried down Lighthouse Avenue in procession with the marching band and the congregation after mass.

The musicians were perfect, and all the young women wore white dresses with their hair in buns and sang Ave Maria as we left.

I went home and learned to make Portuguese chesse balls – pan de queijo – for a New Year’s party as a tribute to the wonderful mass.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Relaxing at the Indian Buffet by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Relaxing at the Indian Buffet by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I loved taking my daughter Florence out for lunch at India’s Clay Oven in downtown Monterey, California with my poetry -writing friends in the late 1990s.  We all liked discussing books at our window table with a view of treetop and tourists going to Fishermans’ Wharf below at “India’s.”

Our 1990s drink orders were for chai – a spiced tea and milk drink from Central Asia that was becoming all the rage in California – and mango lhassi – a mango purée and yogurt drink that tastes like a tart milkshake.  Florence loved mango lhassis and usually ordered two.

India’s Clay Oven claimed to have eighteen items on its buffet, but they did not include all the soups or freshly chopped salad fixings and fruit in that number.

Thanks to labels above the food items, I knew that on my first visit I had filled my plate with flat, thick rounds of blistered naan bread and bright red thighs and drumsticks of tandoori chicken.  This combination is a hit everywhere in India.

These two items typify what is known a Punjabi-Moghul cuisine of Northwestern India according to Smita Chandra in her cookbook/history book entitled Cuisines of India:  The Art and Tradition of Regional Indian Cooking.

When the Punjab region became divided between India and Pakistan, Hindu refugees from Pakistan had to make new lives for themselves in India.  Many of them settled in Delhi, the capital of India’s ancient Mogul Empire and opened restaurants featuring food cooked in their traditional tandoor, a clay oven lined with charcoal.

Chandra further relates that the former chefs of the princely Northwestern Indian states, who lost their jobs after Independence had to find work much like French chefs after the French Revolution.  These chefs cooked Persian influenced Mogul cuisine featuring richly spiced curries and meat and rice and dishes; Indian food is not all vegetarian.

After several trips to “India’s,” I checked out Premila Lal’s The Complete Book of Indian Cooking to read up on tandoori chicken.  Tandoori chicken marinates in yogurt with seasonings such as lemon juice, cumin seeds, cinnamon, bay leaf, peppercorn, and cardamom.

Lal writes that a daughter-in-law knows she has been accepted into an Indian family when her mother-in-law shares the family spice recipes with her.

Lal’s cookbook share naan’s recipe as well: flour, eggs, yogurt, milk, and ghees – clarified butter.  I knew why I liked this warm naan bread so much, which has a few heat blistered spots that crunch.

My poetry writing friend Debra said I should really try the vegetable dishes, too.  I like the following tasty items:

-vegetable deep fried pakoras – potato and onion fritters

-bhartha – puréed roast eggplants with cumin, turmeric, paprika, garlic, green chilies, onion, gingerroot, and garam masala (spice combination) with sour cream

Between trips to the buffet table, we did talk about poetry like Neruda’s Birds and Rumi’s poetry of love.

Going to India’s Clay Oven was a sweet, mango lhassi lunch.  Metaphor is about all I can do in poetry.  Metre is too hard.

(Note:  India’s Clay Oven is now closed, but Ambrosia in Monterey serves wonderful food in a garden atmosphere with huge Nataraja statues from India presiding over the dining room.)

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Bug Safari Activity for Kids by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Bug Safari Activity for Kids by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

When I read that 7 citiies in the UK are participating in the #CityNatureChallenge on Twitter, I immediately thought of the “Bug Safari” program I did with the Monterey Peninsual Regional Parks District when I was the Youth Services Librarian for Monterey County California.

This is a school age – 12 and under – program that includes a nature walk with song, stories, and art projects afterwards.  The Parks District handled the nature walk, and I did the cultural part of the program.

Three libraries with nearby parks participated in the program:

-Marina – Locke Paddon Park

-Seaside – Laguna Grande Park

-Carmel Valley – Carmel Valley Park

After the walk with pointing out all cobwebs and flying creatures, we began the library park of the walk by singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider a few times till we got the gestures right.  The gestures help memorize the song.

Picture Books

Then, I read the following insect-related picture books:

-A picture book version of The Itsy Bitsy Spider as children made the hand gestures and recited

-Anansi the Spider books – African folktales about a smart spider

-The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

-The Ant and the Grasshopper fable from Aesop’s fables written by an ancient Roman storyteller

-A nonfiction photo book about chrysalis to butterfly formation

Art Projects

-3D Spider

Construction paper body with wobbly eyes pasted on and legs made of strips of construction paper folded back and forth and released as springs.  Use black construction paper and a white crayon to make a cobweb.

-Butterfly Painting

Fold white typing paper in half and fill in one side with paint to look like half a butterfly.  Fold the other side down and press.  Open paper up to find a symmetrical butterfly.

Can make a bumblebee this way with yellow and black alone.

-Use drawing books to draw the following insects:

-ladybugs

-butterflies

-mosquitos

-bees

-dragonflies

-spiders

The easiest drawing books for children to begin drawing insects break the bug down into geometric shapes and then color them in with pencils.

I used insect drawing books from the collection of the Monterey County Free Libraries, which included books such as the following:

-How to Draw Insects by Barbara Soloff Levy

-Ralph Masiello’s Bug Drawing Book by Ralph Masiello

-How to Draw: Insects by Dandi Palma

-Learn to Draw Insects: Step-by-Step Instructions for 26 Creepy Crawlies by Dina Fisher

-How to Draw Amazing Animals and Incredible Insects: Packed with Over 100 Fascination Animals by Fiona Gowne

To finish up, we would discuss which art projects were the most interesting to draw and why and which books they liked the best and why.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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