Cooking Lamp and Sweets

People here call lamb lamp, and it’s pretty funny. Today we started with wedding pilafe, a lemony rice dish served to coat the stomach before the big wedding feast. Adding a bit of yoghurt softens the tartness. While we ate that we prepared lamb stew with greens (fricassee) and chops cooked on top of the stove with just olive oil and water.

Maria’s sous-chef had made some delicious chickpeas that we enjoyed on the side.

Our final class focused on desserts: semolina cake and orange pie, both dead easy to make.

So we would have more to eat than just dessert, Maria baked fish with potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and onions.

And we posed with our favorite waiter, Felipe.

After our last class we took an excursion to Knossos, Crete’s most famous landmark and the hub of the Minoan civilization 4000 years ago. The excavation is enormous, and much of it was shored up by cement walls, so you’re not walking exclusively on 4000 year old stones. But it’s still fascinating to see the advanced nature of the Minoans, with their pipes, sewers and toilets. The distinctive red pillars, however, are original.

According to myth, King Minos prayed for and was given a white bull by the god Poseidon that the king was to sacrifice in return for Poseidon’s favor. Owing to the bull’s beauty, however, Minos kept it; so Poseidon made Minos’ wife, Pasiphaë, fall in love with it and conceive a fierce beast, a creature half-human, half-bull, which was named Minotaur. Many brave young men died trying to slay the beast, which was contained in an underground maze under the palace, until Theseus managed to kill it with his bare hands and secure the throne of Athens.

For our final dinner we opted to go to Maria’s newer restaurant in Heraklion, which was just a delight. Having some issues uploading images, so I’ll stop for now. Back to Athens tomorrow!