Organically Cooked

Zambolis Studios Chania

My little business is up and running!
Zambolis apartments, Chania, Crete

zambolischania.blogspot.com

Something edible (Kάτι φαγώσιμο)

We don't always say what we mean

organicallycooked.com Συγγνωμη, μήπως μπορείτε να μου δώσετε λίγα χρήματα για να αγοράσω κάτι να φάω ; There's very often a person asking for money standing outs...

Santorini: Life Among the Insular Greeks (James Theodoire Bent)

http://www.organicallycooked.com/2018/09/santorini.html
Santorini then and now:
I've posted my photos of my recent trip to Santorini among the texts of James Theodore Bent, who visited the island in the late 1800s

organicallycooked.com Unlike nowadays, travel in the late 1800s was expensive, and journeys to places we think of as short and close to us took a long time. The ...

Off-season tourism

Ever thought of a winter holiday in Greece?

organicallycooked.com "Tourism is like a kitchen: you can cook in it, but it can also burn your house down." A Dutch friend recently said this to me. His wife...

An Athenian tragedy

Never again
http://www.organicallycooked.com/2018/07/an-urban-tragedy.html

organicallycooked.com The web abounds with bucket lists of to-do's in Athens: see the Acropolis, visit the museums, have a kebab at Monastiraki, coffe and cake a...

QUIZ! So you want to live here...

Happy summer holidays in Greece to all of you!
Try this quiz to see if you can extend that holiday for life

organicallycooked.com First things first: Greece's tourist numbers here have crashed through the ceiling. People are dying to come here for a holiday. Among thos...

Ελλαδισ-don: Sρεακιng Grεεκ αbρoαd ιn ρυblιc

organicallycooked.com One of my most awkward Greek-identity moments occurred in London, just after this past Christmas, while on a train with my family. We'd jus...

Ελλαδισ-don: Sρεακιng Grεεκ αbρoαd ιn ρυblιc

"It is extreme luck to be born Greek, and extreme luck to die as a Greek. The in-between stage however is a great misfortune." Arkas

organicallycooked.com One of my most awkward Greek-identity moments occurred in London, just after this past Christmas, while on a train with my family. We'd jus...

Ready to go on a Surprise Tour
Matt Barrett Econopouly

Housing crisis

organicallycooked.com Last Monday afternoon, after getting a couple of jobs done in the town, I suggested to my husband that we take a walk to the harbour. We h...

Airbnb

To airbnb (or not to be) - my latest post

organicallycooked.com The greatest losers to airbnb were of course the hoteliers, but that is a different story: the internet-connected world and the 'sharing' e...

Happenings

organicallycooked.com Many many years ago, probably more than 35, some time in the early 80s, I remember a Kiwi woman coming into the fish and chip shop that my ...

Happenings

A busy year ahead for me...

organicallycooked.com Many many years ago, probably more than 35, some time in the early 80s, I remember a Kiwi woman coming into the fish and chip shop that my ...

Tinned tomatoes

organicallycooked.com I've been following the populist 'no more tinned tomatoes' debate that broke out just over a week ago in the New Zealand media, when a wome...

The living dead

organicallycooked.com Looking after the dead is an important aspect of every modern society. Greeks bury their dearly departed in such a way that we can imagine ...

The living dead

The epigraphs at Gerolakkos remind us that there is indeed life after death, and just as we lived life on earth as we wished, so too will we live life below ground

organicallycooked.com Looking after the dead is an important aspect of every modern society. Greeks bury their dearly departed in such a way that we can imagine ...

Greek Urban Warriors: Resistance & Terrorism 1967-2014 by John Brady Kiesling

A review of a book about an aspect of Greek society that is difficult to quell

organicallycooked.com Ήμασταν ζωντανοί νεκροί (We were the living dead) μας δίνανε μ’ ανταλλαγή (they exchanged us for) τη μπόμπα την ατομική...

Tsigariasto with chili

Enjoy the ride!

organicallycooked.com My husband's line of work in the taxi business usually involves mundane rides from A to B. During the summer, foreign clients make the ride...

As things stand today: An appraisal of Greek neo-immigration to the UK

organicallycooked.com When someone was typing, someone else was listening: " If only we could all find ourselves where we feel well, or feel well wherever we ...

As things stand today: An appraisal of Greek neo-immigration to the UK

"If only we could all find ourselves where we feel well, or feel well wherever we may find ourselves. There's no point trying to convince someone about what we are going through."
(a long post today, which took a few months to write)

organicallycooked.com When someone was typing, someone else was listening: " If only we could all find ourselves where we feel well, or feel well wherever we ...

Sojourn in the Netherlands

organicallycooked.com Two weeks in the Netherlands*, my lucky break this year. "How come, Maria?" I was often asked, as if it isn't common to travel abroad for ...

Sojourn in the Netherlands

enjoy!

organicallycooked.com Two weeks in the Netherlands*, my lucky break this year. "How come, Maria?" I was often asked, as if it isn't common to travel abroad for ...

Filotimo (Φιλότιμο)

Organically Cooked The BBC recently put up a discussion about a Greek word that can't be translated: φιλότιμο (fiLOtimo). The reason for this probably lies in the fact that Greeks can't quite themselves decide what it means:

"It seems that not only does the word remain untranslatable, but even Greeks themselves have

Filotimo (Φιλότιμο)

fIlotimo - and its opposite
http://www.organicallycooked.com/2017/07/filotimo.html?m=1

organicallycooked.com The BBC recently put up a discussion about a Greek word that can't be translated: φιλότιμο (fiLOtimo). The reason for this probably lies in...

Walls

Organically Cooked "Walls are hot right now"
Banksy, wall artist, and creator of the newly opened Walled Out Hotel in Palestine
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/banksy-opens-bethlehem-barrier-wall-hotel




The oldest walls delineating the limits of the town of Hania were built about 1500 years ago by th

If they could hear themselves speak

Organically Cooked Prologue:
"What you expect woman? Yes, just this! What you expect? Everyone live like this. There has been a war. Houses bombed. I know plenty people live worse than this. What you want? ... There has been a war here. Everyone live like this." (Small Island by Andrea Levy)

The conversation that fo

Empty shops

Organically Cooked One of the classic descriptions of the appearance of Greek cities today is the 'empty shops' syndrome, which stretches as far back as the beginning of the crisis:

From the empty shops, to the half-full theatres, restaurants, concert halls and hotels, the signs are everywhere: economic crisis has co

A non-EU Greece

Organically Cooked My son making dakos in Budapest

On the 60th anniversary of the founding of the EU, my family was reaping the benefits of being a member of the EU. My son was visiting Budapest on an ERASMUS high school exchange trip (all expenses paid); my daughter was briefing a German exchange student who will be

She, Daniela Blake

Organically Cooked I spent a whole morning yesterday observing the goings on at my local ΙΚΑ (recently renamed ΕΟΠΠΥ, and even more recently, ΠΕΔΥ) branch, as I was waiting for my turn to update a health document.

The woman walked through the doors, holding a plastic supermarket carrier bag in one hand and a water b

GR80s

Organically Cooked "Until then, there was just a low class of urban dwellers. In the 80s, the western world middle class culture was created, which is why the 80s were the 'womb' of the post-junta era, even though the dictatorship ended in 1974." http://www.lifo.gr/print/print_feature/130598
While in Athens last week

Hidden London

Organically Cooked London is not the easiest introduction to a Cretan about the ways of the north. There are some things that you can understand better inter-generationally and (not 'or') with experience. Age helps, but cultural education starts very early. Even I make bloopers along the way, but the difference betwee

Buying olive oil from a supermarket

Organically Cooked This story goes back further - some useful pre-reading:

Stolen heritage (Κλεμμένη κληρονομιά) http://www.organicallycooked.com/2012/01/stolen-heritage.html
Stains in the extra virgin olive oil industry (Λαδολαδιές) http://www.organicallycooked.com/2012/01/stains-in-extra-virgin-olive-oil.html
Degus

Askeletoura (Ασκελετούρα)

Organically Cooked It's askeletoura time in Greece! In the same way, as the pomegranate, this bulbous plant is smashed jut before the new year on the ground before your front door, for good luck!

Askeletetoura, Drimia maritima, is also known by the name of 'skilokromido', which literally means 'dog-onion'. This peren

Hosafi (Χοσάφι)

Organically Cooked Here's an article I wrote last year for The Greek Vegan's Nisteia magazine



The Hellenic people, from which modern Greeks descend, were found
throughout the ancient world, where they set up colonies due to their trading
interests. The Hellenes settled in various regions east of modern-day Greece
k

Trans

Organically Cooked Just another day in the life of a Mediterranean cabbie.



Last weekend, while I (ie my husband) was first at the Agious Apostolous taxi rank, I picked up a fare at Hrisi Akti, just a few metres away from the stand. Dusk was beginning to fall and there weren't many people at the beach. On seeing the

Cheats' Haniotiko Boureki

Organically Cooked I ran into a couple of girlfriends in the supermarket the other day. By friends, I mean real friends, not the ad hoc kind we make on facebook. 'Ελα ντε that they are also on facebook and we are friends there too, which explains how they knew what I had been cooking recently.

"What a great boureki y

Cheats' Haniotiko Boureki

All over the western world, everybody's living standards are falling. So in effect, everyone is in crisis these days.

organicallycooked.com I ran into a couple of girlfriends in the supermarket the other day. By friends, I mean real friends, not the ad hoc kind we make on facebo...