One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. ~Virginia Woolf
Images from Greece (Athens to Egina). To glimpse all the yummy photos visit Ishta Productions flickr stream.
I’ve been slacking and now a few weeks behind on tales of my be-bopping, but I do have a valid excuse, the Egyptian elections consumed my life! My world turned a tad crazy for a bit (there will be more details to come very soon) but I want to backtrack a few weeks to the world of olive oil, grilled octopus, and fantastic wine…oh the memories, I can still taste the yumminess, hmmmm…
Ok, ok, I know I’ve promised in the past to avoid full on food commentary but you have to remember that my recent life in San Francisco spoiled me rotten. I mean my standard bar snack was TRUFFLE oil popcorn with real truffles, seriously who can blame me for my obsession? This obviously explains why I was in foodie heaven for a few short days during my stint in Greece, and why the memories of plump olives and lightly fried sardines fill my dreams…
The best way to explain the instant bond I felt with the local mentality, and the innate happiness everyone shared when surrounded by Greek cuisine, esp XVOO (extra virgin olive oil), seems obvious after reading excerpts from a Mediterranean blog I found …
For Greeks, olive oil is not just the main fat used in cooking. It is tied to every ritual that marks all crucial events in the cycle of life: It was with olive oil that the ancient Greeks rubbed their babies at birth, a practice still in use in rural villages to this day. Greek priests anoint infants at Christening with olive oil, and, again with olive oil mixed with wine, the bodies of the deceased are embalmed prior to burial. Olive oil was also used by ancient Greeks to fuel the lamps that lighted the houses…
According to ancient myths, the cultivation of the olive tree was entrusted to virgins and chaste men. But would these chaste young people still remain chaste with all this olive oil enclosed in the olives around them?
There are about 90 million olive trees in Greece and we Greeks consume the most olive oil, per capita, in the world: A total of about 200 million kilos, or 40 pints per person, a year…
Now back to the reality of Egypt cuisine…the not so Mediterranean flavored chicken schwarma and tamaya, ever delicious, but having yet to fill my dreams.
For the time being I’ll have to exist in the daydream of my Greek memories…my taste buds in limbo until a new culinary destination fulfills the needs of my pallet 
You were always my culinary guide–even able to find fine dining in Lincoln!