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| Greek Recipes Cuisine | Mediterranean Cooking and Diet | Healthy Cooking Mediterranean Style |
Island and coastal geography contribute much to the flavor of Greek cuisine, making it ideally Mediterranean. Seafood in wondrous variety figures a large role in the Greek diet. Sunny, mild climes make the land well-disposed to growing an assortment of natural produce – olives, okra, onions, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant – and facilitate the choice of lamb over beef. In Greece, lean meats and fresh catches are frequently combined with ripe greens and olive oil.
With polite suggestions from both land and sea, the Greeks have put together a repertory of spiced, nut-laced pilafs, fired lamb on skewers or in flat bread, game meats marinated in garlic and lemon juice, and many more delicious creations. Grilled foods are Greek favorites. In Greece, any and all meats and fish are skewered up, lightly seasoned, tossed onto an open fire, and served directly onto the platter. Other popular dishes include savory pastries, stuffed with spinach and feta, lamb and leeks, or chicken and mushrooms.
As heirs to all great Western legacies, modern Greeks are tempted to claim more than a fair share of the Mediterranean’s culinary heritage as well. Greek culinary nationalism, as the tendency can be called, is in some ways a reaction to the suffering experienced by the Greeks toward the end of Ottoman rule. With a simple turn of phrase – often by pointing to the fact that Greece is a much older civilization – the Greeks will brush off the similarities between Greek and Turkish dishes, and end of the discussion.
Greek writers on the subject of cooking have yet to accomplish any reasoned debate on the many ways in which Greek cooking may have been influenced by outside cultures. Much ignored is the question, how much of their classical legacies the Greeks have preserved? After all, the Turks are not the only ones to have been through Greece. The country has also experienced invasions, settlements, and interferences by all of the Roman, Venetian, Catalan, Genoese, and Slavic peoples as well. These societies would have adopted some of the local cooking habits, but they would have also introduced many of their own.
| Greek Cooking and Recipes | Mediterranean Diet and Cuisine | Healthy Cooking Mediterranean Style |
Greek cooking today is markedly influenced by neighboring Turkey and Italy, and any Greek culinary legacy is more likely to have roots in Byzantium than in classical Greece. However, even before the arrival of the Ottomans, Byzantine cooking had much in common with middle-eastern cuisine and the cooking of the Islamic peoples. So much so that it could be difficult to find the separation and direction of influence between them.
Interestingly, some of the eastern Mediterranean’s most famous dishes bespeak their general origins. Moussaka and Halva (or halwa), for example, are Arabic words. While moussaka, meaning “soaked,” refers to a dish of eggplant brimming in meat and vegetable juices, halva is both a Turkish dessert sweet and the term for “sweet” in Arabic. Versions of both recipes can be found in Greece and Turkey, but also in Lebanon and Egypt. The Ottomans transferred to the Greeks many new takes on older regional recipes. Still, despite a significant period of Ottoman rule, the line between Turkish and Greek cuisine is not obvious.
On the one hand, there was peaceful cohabitation and willing Greek conversion to Islam, and on the other, there were those Greeks who chose to remain isolated from Ottoman society, only now and again coming into contact with Ottoman janissaries when they came to collect taxes. The origins of Greek culinary traditions is an area that has yet to be explored by un-biased researchers dedicated to historical pursuits as opposed to nationalistic ones.
If indeed there are Greek dishes in existence which have three thousand year old roots, no doubt the world would thoroughly enjoy knowing of this aspect of ancient Greece as much as any other. As of yet, however, these are perhaps only figments of the wishful imagination. Even so, that a dish might be three thousand years old or three hundred, good cooking will be appreciated always and no matter. (more Greek culinary history on www.cliffordawright.com >)
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