Foooood, Part I

Tonight, since we had a late-ish and large-ish lunch, for dinner we decided to walk up the street to Santorini Mou, which we’d read on TripAdvisor is a fun, friendly taverna with good food. And is it ever! Foodwise, we just ordered some appetizers: Paul’s favorite taramosalata (fish roe dip), a salad, and our two must-have items: saganaki and tomato balls. They call them "tomato fritters" at this restaurant, but they are the same thing: in Greek, tomato keftides. I’m thinking that Paul and I should stay in Santorini for an extended period and research the definitive survey on tomato balls and saganaki in Santorini. No sacrifice too great for scholarship!

The saganaki I’ve had in the past (all in the States) falls into two categories: okay-to-pretty-good fried cheese, and the saganaki at Symposium on West 113^th Street in NYC, which is the food I’ll be greeted with in heaven (along with their tsatsiki, warm pita bread, and a nice glass of red wine). At Symposium, they do it in the showy "hoopa!" style: they douse the cheese in brandy, put a match to it, and bring it out in flaming fanfare shouting "hoopa" The first time I ordered it, I was a grad student at Columbia and didn’t realize about the fanfare. It was kind of embarrassing--but I got over it more or less immediately, once I tasted the cheese! The waiters put the plate in front of you while it’s still on fire, and hand you a small plate of lemon wedges. After the cheese has reached the desired degree of brown bubbliness, you squeeze lemon juice on it to put the fire out. Then you eat it with the aforementioned warm pita bread, and swoon with delight!

Anyway, I’d been looking around for "flaming cheese" saganaki here in Santorini, to no avail. I asked the nice waiter at MamaThira in Fira about it and he said that Santorini doesn’t really do that, it’s just for show. "For the eye," said Theodore. So I decided--despite those previous disappointing experiences--to give the non-flaming type of saganaki another try. Or seven. Or ninety. It is indeed heaven on a plate, and Santorini Mou’s didn’t disappoint. And their tomato balls may be the best ones yet. We’ve had them several places now: the first being at the very first lunch we had in Fira that day we went into town to find clip-on sunglasses for Paul. We’d passed MamaThira on the way up the coastline. I’d read about it--on TripAdvisor, where else?--so we decided to go there for lunch. It’s lovely, has a great view of the caldera, and the service couldn’t have been better. The tomato balls came with the prix fixe lunch (along with Santorini salad with fresh soft cheese, and a gorgeous grilled fresh local sea bass--actually, this is still one of my favorite meals we’ve had here). We fell in immediate love with the tomato balls and have ordered them at least once a day since! I found a recipe online that looks close to the ones we had:

http://www.greek-recipe.com/static/content/Tomato_balls.html

I’m finding fresh dill (rather than mint) to be the herb of choice here, though.

We will be continuing our survey of saganaki and keftedes for the rest of the time we’re here in Santorini (till Wednesday). Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to an out-of-the-way place in the middle of the island that’s supposed to have both the best AND second best saganaki on Santorini. Hmmmm, we’ll need to investigate this claim thoroughly.

Anyway, we had a great time at Santorini Mou. They take photos of everyone who eats there (yes, everyone!) and put them in books that they ask you to sign. They have a special book for honeymooners (Santorini is one of the honeymoon capitals of the Universe, apparently!). There was another honeymoon couple at dinner--a young couple from Istanbul, of all places. The owner had splits of sweet champagne brought for each of the couples, then serenaded us with "When I’m Sixty-Four." It was a lovely evening, and you could see that everyone there--and there were people there from all over the world--was having a great time. Ah, Santorini!

Two weird things: I’ve been surprised to find that pita bread--that staple of all Greek restaurants in America--is not all that popular here in Greece. They have it, of course. You’ll get it if you’re having a gyro--and maybe if you’re having souvlaki. Otherwise, you get regular rolls or French/Italian-style bread. It just seems wrong to eat tsatsiki (which is, if you are unacquainted, a delicious dip made of Greek yogurt and garlic, sometimes with cucumber, parsley, and olive oil) with a roll. You can ask for pita and they’ll bring it to you--but they’ll look at you funny.

Second weird thing: we’ve been eating (not to mention drinking) our way from London to Istanbul to Athens to Santorini--and I haven’t gained a pound. In fact, I may have lost a few! I’m attributing it to lots of walking, as well as a diet heavy in salads and fresh fish, and Greek yogurt and fresh fruit for breakfast every morning. It seems to offset the wine and excessive amounts of bread! Haven’t had any pasta since leaving Santa Fe: this is possibly the longest I’ve ever gone without pasta! Well, next stop is Rome--I’ll get back to you on that weight loss thing.