Regional Greek Cuisine
The great achievement of Diane Kochilas' The Glorious Foods of Greece: Traditional Recipes from the Islands, Cities, and Villages is that for the first time we are introduced to the regional differences and complexity of Greece cuisine in historical context. This could only be done by someone who traveled a lot and who met people and found their way into people's kitchens. This is what Kochilas did. There is no Greek cookbook close to it, except perhaps the now quite old, but not dated, Food of Greece by Vilma Chantiles.
Kochilas properly shows that the whole question of what constitutes Greek food is complex. She correctly and proudly shows, and accepts, that Greek cuisine as with all cuisines have multifarious influences. These influences are embraced and not denied. This is a breath of fresh air from the typical Greek food writer with the nationalistic approach. Setting Greek cuisine into an historical context is difficult because as anyone who has attempted to research early medieval Greece knows, one runs into a wall. As H. St L. B Moss showed in his article "Greece and the Early Medieval West," in Michael Huxley, ed. The Root of Europe: Studies in the Diffusion of Greek Culture Greek influence on western Europe during the so-called Dark Ages is almost a case of lucus a non lucendo. It is the extinction of Greek influence in the West which characterizes this period. There is little evidence from this period. The break between the Graeco-Roman world and the medieval world was nearly total, with the exception of the Eastern church. For several hundred years, under the Florentines, the Venetians, the Catalans, and the Turks, Greece was subjugated. The position of the Greeks during this time is reflected in the documents from these respective occupiers as well as trading nations such as Sicily: the Greeks remain nameless.
Kochilas' achievement is all the remarkable because she has rightly used an anthropological approach for her culinary investigations. For her efforts we get a wonderful glimpse into a huge number of regional cooking styles. I just love that she talks about the island of Santorini, for example, where a history of food on Santorini informs us that the Venetian occupation on the island's economy was feudal, with the population divided between the extremely wealthy controlling the peasants. The wealthy ate Western food or Italian dishes. The peasants used yellow split pea which was as basic as bread. She doesn't overlook influences at all when she says that there are some Ottoman hints in the cooking of Crete such as the Cretans showing less of a penchant for avgolemono sauces but liking the derbiye, lemon juice and flour used by the Turks. At least one Cretan dish was introduced by the Turks, tzoulama (cirlama in Turkish), which traditionally is a pie made with chicken livers and cinnamon. The Jews of the island played a role too and the influx of Asia Minor Greeks also made an influence in Crete after 1920
The recipes are a delight as well. Take for instance two beauts from Crete, pseftokeftedes (false fritters) or tomatokeftedes, tomato fritters made with small fresh tomatoes, scallions, parsley, mint, flour and kouneli tyravgoulos, rabbit with a rich egg and cheese sauce. The entire country gets the Kochilas treatment which means fascinating and delicious recipes that work, embedded with the full flavor of their ingredients as well as their histories and cultural setting. This book is a must in any cook's library. One caveat, though, if you're cooking from this book, it's not for beginners as some recipes need a little tweaking, but frankly, I don't believe that detracts from the book. If you want Greek basics then Kochilas' first book, the Food and Wine of Greece may be a better bet. Nevertheless, this book should still be on your shelf.
Wonderful
Beautiful recipes !! I was in a bookstore right before traveling to Greece. Jotted the title down and ordered it upon returning from my trip. A****** rating. Recipes that you don't easily find. Easy to follow recipes and great tasting !! Bargain price on Amazon. $35.00 in store -I think I paid around $3.00 on Amazon for a used issue that looks new !! What a deal.
too technical for me
This is an excellent and learned guide to the cuisine of Greece. However we visited Greece and were eager to prepare some of those recipes at home. Not only were the typical Greek-American dishes not included in this book, but the typical taverna food we had in greece was not included either. Technically proficient, but too idiosyncratic for me!
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