You gotta eat.

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You gotta eat but this is ridiculous (almost!).

It’s not long after breakfast so the legacy of a few pastries, some fruit, a good measure of yogurt and honey, a liberal supply of juice and of course some coffee have not worn off. The 3 minute walk did not exactly compensate either. But we were off on the Athens Food Tour. After some chicken and cheese, spinach and cheese, ham and cheese and of course some cheese and cheese pastries followed by some donuts with cinnamon and honey (they are seriously good but I could only eat 2 of the 3 we were offered), some Greek coffee, then helpings of beef meat balls, zucchini and carrot balls, tzatziki, stuffed capsicum, fried cheese, chicken cooked in garlic and lemon, some pork cooked in garlic and tomato, some eggplant and some bread and dips we immediately headed off for a gyros (souvlakis). Sorry we didn’t immediately head off we had an ouzo first then tastings of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a couple of wines, I missed the wine cause I’m watching my figure! The gyros alone is what we have eaten for evening meal the last 2 nights. Admittedly we have a baklava or an ice cream for dessert but a gyros from this place is quite substantial. Suffice to say the tour won as for the last few hours we have done very little.

The tour provides lots of food (obviously and evidently) but was short on context and commentary. Sure it was hot and the advertised 4 hours was less than 3 and a half but I thought it needed more historical and cultural referencing. Why is Greek cuisine not up there with Chinese or Italian? Why do we know so much of French culinary methodology and so little about Greek method? Tony Woollcombe could tell us but he wasn’t on the tour. The other 8 participants were all Americans so we could basically communicate OK. We did our best to again allay fears of snakes and spiders but I’m afraid we are swimming against the tide!

The photos are in, we are still fully fed but that’s it for a while.

Caio for now.

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