Food, the International Language

The lines between what are public and private venues are a little fuzzy here, but our standing in the community has moved from public acceptance to a more private one.  We were recently included in an invitation to a family dinner party hosted in the village, and later, approached by Effie while we were up at the restaurant, and asked if she could drop by some morning to see the house.  We of course, assented to both offers immediately.

Like Mayport, most people in the village are related, if not by blood, then by marriage, and if not by marriage, then by proxy.  Our house originally belonged to Dimitris’ cousin, who had inherited it from Demetris’ grandfather, and since we now occupy an ancestral home with the family’s blessing, that makes us some kind of adoptive kin by proxy.  The cousin’s niece Teta, and her mother Sonya, who speaks no English at all, had planned a big family dinner party and invited us.  At times the table looked and sounded like it could have been the set from a movie.  Whatever table talk was lost in translation, was more than compensated for by the food which included: stuffed lamb, goat cheese, pasta, beans, greens, escargot, chick pea balls, bread, potato salad, sweet wine, Ouzo, ice cream and Coca-Cola, which someone called, “The Greek National Drink.”

For Effie’s visit we decided to throw together a little last minute coffee brunch.  Effie speaks little more English than we speak Greek, but taking our cues from Sonya, we figured that a little food could go a long way in bridging the language barrier, and so it did.   I scrambled down to the bakery and picked up some cookies, croissants, and phyllo dough pastries, to serve with fruit and coffee.  Effie arrived with a granddaughter in tow and a dish of homemade marmalade; and after a necessarily brief tour of our 325 sq. ft. house, we sat down for a bite to eat and about an hour’s worth of conversation that included a recipe for dolmades, and a practical demonstration as to how they are properly rolled.   It was a nice party.

 

photos by Newell