Gardens of Salonica Traditional and modern Greek cuisine

Tomorrow! The Food Tour of Northern Greece is designed as a nod to the kindred cuisine of our northern neighbors, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey. As in all Symposia. A Series, the expanded menu allows guests of all dietary persuasion to partake in extended, leisurely dining. So, for instance, while tomorrow evening's feature is roast pig, pickled cabbage Sarmades with 100% grass fed beef, will be served as well.

1 dry white onion, chopped
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil and 1/3-1/2 for brushing on fillo

1lb washed, drained mixed greens: spinach, arugula, endive, lambs quarters, amaranth (pigweed), mustard, purslane, dandelion, nettles, sorrel. Coarse chopped (about 1-2" cross-wise strips) If later in the season, strip leaves from woody stems. If unsure, pinch the stem, if it snaps easily put it in.

1lb feta or blend of cheese crumbed. (Kaseri, Kefalotyri, ricotta, pecorino, gouda, cottage cheese)

1/4 tsp white pepper
3 eggs beaten

Sorting the prepped Brown Turkey figs waiting to be poached, I was enveloped in memories of long summer evenings years ago. It was, what I would call the idyllic, and, therefore, very short period in my life--we lived at the end of a cul-de-sac on Mariposa Way, in Lodi, California for 18 months and just when it seemed that this would be a permanent paradise, my father was transferred to a place that was unimaginably far away and completely foreign: Golden Valley, Minnesota.

Hard to believe that only four short months ago the absolute temps were in the negative teens, the wind chills were below minus 30' F and that the icy grope of winter reached all the way to Mexico devastating crops below the Rio Grande. Eggplant and squash blossoms were annihilated and the price of eggplant jumped from $16.50 in mid-January to over $72 for the same quantity. Zucchini was gone.

We asked where we should eat and they said to "the shipwreck' a family-owned taverna by the sea. And what didn't we eat? Octopus drying in the sun, homemade wine, yigandes and skewers of lamb and pork. YUM!

Delphi, Day 1, Olympia Day 2, Gytheion Days 3, 4, Tolo Days 5, 6. Wi Fo spotty and poor at best; the Smatfon, Motorola Exprt, purchased JUST to make bloging and uploading photos easy is NOT. But finally we are we are sufficiently apprisedto start posting. Photos here: Gytheion, yes, view from our balcony. A sweet,1950s style hotel with illuminated plastic blocks announcing its name to the harbour: Pantheon. Here we rested three days after extensive drives from Delphi to Olympia to Gytheion covering main land Greece down to the southernmost regions of the Peloponese.

It's taken eight Symposia for me to be calm and accomplished enough to sit, pre-event, and blog about all this. As a swimmer on the High School team competing in the 400IMA, I learned about endurance and the prospect of goal attainment as a process that has certain identifiable stages. I'll save the elucidation of those stages for a motivational series yet to come. In any case, each time I set myself up to create a Symposia. A Series, I nearly lose all the equilibrium that I have been building from all those yoga classes.

What tastes a cross between al dente asparagus and a brined green olives? Could be Fiddleheads, the tightly rolled expression of a baby Ostrich fern out of riverbank loam. When lightly blanched in salt water and sauteed with garlic, ramps and seasonings, topped with salty kefalograviera cheese, they create a rumpus on the palate. Chimeral and ephemeral, these fronds have about a three week engagement and then they're gone.

It's been a while since I cut 24 or so hearts free hand to make individualized cards for my kids' pals on Valentines' Day. But there I was today, Saturday, cutting with my very good Whiskars, pink hearts to cover the Gioconda Truffles that are being sold at the Wedge and Hampden Coop as well as here at the Gardens for about $5.

Over 20 years of working in the kitchen at Gardens, only one preparation defies my mastery and that is Tyro. An emulsion of feta with nearly double its volume of oils and peppers that is whirred in a commercial high-capacity food processor for nearly an hour, the "finishedness" of Tyro is understood as much by an audible drop in decibels as by its visual texture which runs the gamut of a thickly running latex to a fluffy mousse.