Eating Greek
Greek Comfort Food
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By Georgia Kofinas Photography: Clairi Moustafellou and Vassilis Stenos My family ran a restaurant in the American South in the 1950s and ‘60s. It wasn’t a Greek restaurant and the only dish my Greek parents dared to put on the menu was a Greek salad. Mainly what we served was good old Southern barbecue, but that’s not to say that Greek food wasn’t cooked in the restaurant kitchen. At least one burner on the huge gas stove-top was reserved for my mother, who would prepare a separate family meal for us every day. On that burner was cooked all the nostalgic, traditional food that my immigrant parents remembered from their own childhoods and passed down to us. Needless to say, it was this food, comforting and wholesome, that we all looked forward to every day. Thanks to those family meals, I was never able to embrace the institutional public school lunch food that all my classmates ate. I began to bring my lunch from home. My classmates were astonished at the things my mother packed into my lunch bag. They had never seen a buttery cheese pie—one of my favorite lunch foods--and I recall how they looked at me agape as I devoured it. This was my comfort food, but it clearly was not theirs. What is comfort food for one person may be a complete put-off for someone else. Culture and history play a major role in determining what each of defines as comfort food. What is universal in the notion of comfort food is the familiar; a comforting dish serves forth not only good taste and nutrition but a sense of emotional security and well-being. The dictionary defines comfort food as being typically inexpensive, uncomplicated, and easy to prepare. Greek cuisine is filled with foods that bestow health and well-being, that sate the soul, so to speak. Most are inexpensive and easy to prepare, but many are also time-consuming, the kind of dishes a mother would go to extra lengths to prepare, as a way to please the family. Most comfort foods, Greek and not, have starchy complex carbohydrates, which provide us with energy but also have a calming effect on our bodies. Potatoes, pasta, bread, and other starches contain the necessary carbohydrates that clear the way for the brain to receive more tryptophan, an amino acid that becomes serotonin, a neurotransmitter that, among other things, affects our mood. (Lack of serotonin, for example, could lead to depression.) It is not surprising that our bodies seek these “comfort foods” in time of stress. Traditional Greek cuisine certainly has a rich supply of complex carbohydrates. Pastitsio, roasted lemony potatoes, chicken and noodles with tomato sauce, and soft rice-and-vegetable dishes are some of the classic Greek comfort foods. These are just some of the dishes handed down from generation to generation of women, the foods with which they nurtured the home. Greek cuisine essentially is a home-based cuisine. “Greek food is the ultimate comfort cuisine,” says chef Costas Tsingas. “It is made up of dishes that remind us Greeks of our mothers’ cooking. Most of these foods are prepared all over the country.” Tsingas says that the new twists on comforting, rustic Greek dishes don’t count as comfort food. “They have to be untouched, the stuff our mothers and grandmothers lovingly spooned onto our plates when we needed to be pampered.” .jpg) Most comfort foods, Greek and not, have starchy complex carbohydrates, which provide us with energy but also have a calming effect on our bodies. Comfort Pasta, Greek Style Pasta probably ranks first on the list of favorite comfort foods. Greek pasta comes in a rich variety of sizes and shapes suitable for countless combinations with meats, vegetables, sauces, seafood, or alone with grated cheese, melted butter, or warmed olive oil. A classic dish is pastitsio with its aromatic ground meat and tomato sauce strewn between two layers of macaroni tossed with grated kefalotyri cheese and topped with bechamel. A quick and simple variation to pastitsio is buttered spaghetti topped with a rich ground beef and tomato sauce and generously sprinkled with grated kefalotiri. Greek egg noodles, “hilopites,” have always been a favorite, either plain with browned butter and a sprinkle of grated cheese, or alongside chicken stewed in rich tomato sauces, perfumed with cinnamon and allspice. Pasta has been around in the Greek kitchen for many centuries. Potatoes have not, but, upon their arrival in the 19th century, they quickly worked themselves into the comfort food range, thanks to their unique ability to absorb the flavors of the foods with which they are cooked, from lemon and herbs to those warm-spiced tomato sauces. Roasted chicken and potatoes, a classic comfort food in many western kitchens, has its Greek version, too, in the form of a lemon-and-oregano flavored bird and delicious potatoes roasted in the same pan with lots of olive oil, good salt, and highly aromatic Greek herbs. Potatoes go into the pan with Greek baked burgers, biftekia; fried (in olive oil) they become one of the greatest comfort foods of all, and a fast one, too.  Comfort in a Greek Soup Bowl Greece, with its temperate clime, is not a soup-loving nation, but a few hearty soups hit the spot. First among them is the classic avgolemono with chicken, a tangy chicken-rice or chicken-orzo soup in a broth made thick with egg and lemon. Nothing lifts a flagging spirit more than a steaming bowl of avgolemono. One of the classic Greek soups might seem like a hard sell as far as comfort food goes, but it is a favorite among kids: lentil soup. Greek cooks make it with lots of olive oil and almost always throw in a bay leaf for flavor. Another comforting bean soup is the classic—some say national dish—fasolada, a white-bean-and vegetable soup made, again, with lots of soothing, texture-smoothing extra virgin Greek olive oil. This hearty bean soup, both frugal and nutritious, pulled Greeks through many a hard time during the two world wars and the Depression. It is still standard fare on the winter menus of traditional Greek tavernas, especially those in the mountain regions where hungry diners want to be, well, comforted, after a day of brisk outdoor activities. Comfortably…Wrapped Does our other national dish, souvlaki, count as comfort food? Can comfort come in a meal one generally eats while standing? If the nostalgia element is an important one in defining comfort food, then souvlaki (grilled pieces of meat wrapped in pita bread and embellished with tzatziki and tomatoes) is definitely on the list. There is hardly a Greek who does not get the occasional yen for this robustly seasoned wrap, recalling his or her meals as a kid or young adult, maybe while living far from home as a student. Souvlaki has pacified whole generations of fussy, hungry children and left them with pleasant associations as adults. It’s not exactly health food, but it’s good!  Comfort food is basically the repertoire of hearty, rustic homemade Greek fare, but that’s not to say that these delicious dishes have no place in restaurants both Greek and non-Greek. Soothed by Rice Rice, the other major starch in the Greek kitchen, insinuates itself into many dishes that are comforting and healthy. Stuffed vegetables, especially tomatoes and peppers, are a comfort food in summer, while the range of velvety Greek cooked rice and vegetable dishes, especially spanakorizo, spinach and rice, warm belly and soul in colder months. Rice is the main ingredient in the greatest comfort food of all, rice pudding, so soothing it’s a dish one often eats when sick. Comfort in a Savory Pie Top on my list for comfort food are pites—the vast array of Greek savory pies. One caveat: to be really comforting, the phyllo should be homemade. I have fond memories of my mother rolling out paper-thin sheets of homemade phyllo, which she layered with cheese and eggs and a whole cornucopia of seasonal vegetables, such as spinach, leeks, grated squash or wild greens, depending on the season. Homemade phyllo has a completely different texture than the commercial stuff. The homemade stuff is heartier and not as flaky, although a copious amount of olive oil will make it crisp. The commercial stuff makes these pies easier to prepare. For me, a good piece of savory pie is like “hugging yourself inside.” Comfort on the Menu Comfort food is basically the repertoire of hearty, rustic homemade Greek fare, but that’s not to say that these delicious dishes have no place in restaurants both Greek and non-Greek. Indeed, today, these dishes are more timely than ever. The vast array of Greek comfort foods offers healthy choices, simple techniques, robust flavors, reasonable food costs, value for money, and, maybe more than anything else, authenticity. Restaurants present comfort foods in various ways. Among the Greek restaurants in the United States, for example, comfort food plays a major role on the menu. These are, after all, the dishes most customers have come to know as real Greek food. One of the most entrenched, traditional Greek restaurant areas is Greektown in Chicago, where steam-table cuisine is still the norm in many restaurants that are enviably successful. At least one, Greek Islands, for instance, serves on average a thousand people a day. But a few brave souls have ventured beyond the narrow parameters of Greektown in attempt to bring the cuisine closer to the mainstream. The mainstream wants comfort, too, judging by most menus, but they want it served forth a little more elegantly. At Avli Estiatorio, a new place on the north side of Chicago, for example, owner Louie Alexakis retains the traditional recipes for dishes like mousaka and pastitsio, but bakes them in individual casserole dishes, not sheet pans. This way, customers get it piping hot out of the oven with a fresh bechamel topping. At another new Chicago restaurant, Taxim, chef David Schneider brings many childhood memories, from summers spent with his maternal grandparents in Evia, to the menu at this innovative downtown restaurant. He traveled and ate around Greece before opening Taxim, and incorporates some of his culinary finds. Stuffed tomatoes and peppers, for example, are filled with bulgur, not rice; souvlaki is made with duck, not lamb or pork. Homemade yogurt, a great comfort food, has a strong, soothing presence in many dishes. In New York, restaurants approach the idea of comfort foods in various ways. Christos Valtsoglou, owner of Pylos, one of the city’s most popular Greek restaurants, offers a whole section under the heading Greek Comfort Foods in his menu. These include classic (and best-sellers) such as pastitsio, mousaka, chicken egg-lemon soup, spinach-rice pilaf and home-style fried fingerling potatoes. The menu at New York’s Molyvos was built around the concept of home-style cuisine, and follows a similar pattern of playing with all-time favorites. Chef James Botsacos serves items such as baked chicken with potatoes sprinkled with rosemary and mousaka with a yogurt bechamel sauce. On the West Coast, comfort seems to be in equal demand. San Francisco’s Kokari and sister restaurant Evvia in Palo Alto both serve elegant menus that include a fair share of familiar dishes, among them spanakopita (spinach-feta cheese pie), dolmades, avgolemono and lentil soups, lamb and chicken souvlakia wrapped in pita bread, and of course, mousaka made with ground lamb. These are just a few examples of how tradition has long been intertwined in Greek restaurant menus, but Greek comfort food is not necessarily limited to Greek dining establishments, especially since most of these dishes are accessible, easy, and nutritious. They offer chefs a delicious healthy alternative on Mediterranean and international menus. For a while in New York, for example, moussaka was appearing in miniature portions, about the size of a petit four in some places, but served as an accompaniment to main course protein like lamb. Chef Cedric Tovar, at the Waldorf Astoria’s Peacock Alley, had placed it next to grilled lamb chops on a recent menu. Comfort cuisine answers to our needs to be sated with healthy, hearty choices, to be restored, so to speak, as the original meaning of the word restaurant implies. So, before you slurp a gel ball or stare in wonder at a spoonful of air, think Greek pasta, olive-oil roasted potatoes, and maybe even a piece of feta-filled warm savory pie. |
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