We haven’t mentioned much about food for awhile. Our luck with ordering at restaurants was hitting near zero on the Zagat rating scales. That isn’t to say the food hasn’t been entertaining, just that we sort of peer down at our plates and consider whether it is better, worse or the same as college cafeteria food. It usually has been equated to the same. The entertaining side comes from ordering an item (no descriptions on most menus, just the food name) and then being rather suprised at what shows up.
Leaving Spain out of the food picture, I can give a few examples today that describe the entertainment.
1) Order: Fresh Lemon Juice
Arrival: A soda fountain glass of straight lemon juice over ice.
Reaction: Well, it is sour but it sort of grows on you by the end.
2) Order: Greek Salad
Arrival: Tomatoes, cucumber, onion, 3″ square block of feta, oregano, olive oil and lemon juice
Reaction: Shouldn’t there be lettuce in here somewhere?
3) Order: Soulvaki
Arrival: Lamb kebab
Reaction: Oh, that’s Soulvaki, it isn’t actually stewed lamb similar to what we get in California at Vassili’s and the place in Palo Alto
4) Order: Gyro
Arrival: A gyro, meat contents Pork
Reaction: Hmm, never had a pork gryo before, well, that’s a different taste sensation
Those are the success stories of our ordering when the food comes out and at least migrates onto the entertainment scale. Other times, we’ve just run across the dregs of the cooking school. The standard overcooked, undercooked, over salty, not seasoned, fatty, greasy, soggy items from owners that really took a wrong career turn when they decided to open a restaurant.
With a string of recent oddities on the culinary front, we looked up the Zagat guide for Athens and headed over to Daphne’s restaurant for a non-backpacker guide restaurant. Ah, nice surroundings, good bread, attentive waitstaff, hot food from a menu that actually describes its entrees. Woo-hoo!! Our taste buds are revived. Baklava exists! Greek food rocks! We can actually get our check in less than 45 minutes! Heaven.
And the meal even came with spectator entertainment. A mom was dining with an 11, 12 and 16 year old. The teenager went to sit down and pulled out a chair just as the 11 year old facing away talking to mom went to sit down. We had a full chin bonk as there was no longer a chair for him to sit upon. Full mayhem ensued, including waitstaff and owner, and lasted at their table for the remainder of the meal. The conclusion of the teenager salting all of the communal food plates in order to pay back the 11 year old for the whimpering was over the top. Siblings really look like a mixed blessing. I think they would have all sold each other to the lowest bidder during that meal. The mom just looked absolutely dazed.
Back to food. In summary, Athens is such a food upgrade from Spain, even with the weird suprises. Ahh…
