St. Nicholas Greek Festival

When I was in middle school, an awe inspiring shipment arrived at our door in New Hampshire: an entire barrel full olive oil from Yithion, Greece. This wasn’t just any olive oil; it happened to be from my great aunt and uncle’s own olive grove.

Getting the oil here was no easy feat. My mother spent weeks on the phone with my grandmother debating logistics. Will it get through customs? Will the barrel leak? Will the oil spoil? It was a long saga that ended fruitfully in several years worth of some of the best olive oil to touch my lips. I assure you, even the most pristine first cold press olive oil tastes even better when it is from your own families’ grove.

I’ve never actually been to Greece, which is truly a shame. The closest I’ve come is Istanbul (not the same, I know), where my Grandmother (half Greek) lives with her Greek Orthodox Icons hanging prominently next to her Jewish Hamsah (hand icons), next to the Turkish Boncuk (blue evil eye).  I will proudly claim my different lineages, particularly when food is involved. Tasting that olive oil for the first time, I knew Greece was a part of me. When I finally make it there I will gorge myself on olives and feta, wild horta greens, and fish from the sea, and I will be very, very happy.

But, back to New England.  A glorious event takes place in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that allows me to get my Greek on every year: the St. Nicholas Greek Festival. Perhaps Greek people just know how to throw a better party, but this happens to be one of my favorite festivities on the Seacoast. One can get meat on a stick, meat in a wrap, copious amounts of desserts, and very strong coffee.

Maybe you have never been to a Greek Festival, but if you have seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, well,  it’s kind of like that. Seriously – when that movie came out, every one of my Greek and Middle Eastern friends went to see it with their entire families, and it was like watching reality television.

Greek festivals have been the place to go as long as there have been Greek people in this country.  Many Greeks emigrated to America in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. In an April, 1897 clipping from the New York Times we already see public announcements:  “Greek Festival Here. The Grecian national fête will be celebrated in this city to-day, with services in the Greek Church, at 340 West Fifty-third Street.” Granted, at that time there was a holiday attached to the festival, and now mostly, summer seems a good enough reason to celebrate.

On the Seacoast, St. Nicks is located in a rather unassuming place right next to the Portsmouth High School and has been around for over 80 years. The festival started about thirty years ago, and I’ve been going fairly regularly for over a decade.

This year was exciting because Devon had never been to a Greek Festival, and it was the perfect event for him to experience both small town New Hampshire pride, and some “mother country” food.

My parents came along, as did my childhood best friend Sara – who gets points here for putting up with my tourist-like camera-wielding action for the sake of my blog, even though she found it a touch embarrassing.

Food selections were mostly the classics: Souvlaki (charbroiled meat on sticks), or Pastichio (an ultra rich cross between mac and cheese and meat lasagna) or Moussaka (layers of baked eggplant, potatoes, and ground beef).

I went with a traditional Gyro (grilled strips of lamb and beef in a warm pita with cooling tzaziki yogurt sauce). Both Devon and my mom thought this was a good idea as well, so we ended up getting three of the same thing. My dad had the Baked Lamb Shank in tomato sauce, served over rice pilaf. Sara got a Greek Salad, but frankly, as a vegetarian you get cheated with festival food. We ordered Dolmathakia (stuffed grape leaves) in olive oil to share, although I ended up sneaking most of them.

The food was pretty great all around, except for Sara’s Greek salad, which suffered from being not much more than a massive plate of iceberg lettuce. The other failure was the breaded deep fried french fries which came out of a bag and were sopping in oil. Alas, you can’t win them all.

After our meal, we took a brief respite from eating to watch the children perform (8!) Greek dances. This is always more popular than the band alone, and everyone gathers around to watch. I’m always particularly impressed by the kids who have been enlisted to do this, because I myself would have died of mortification.

Next, we went into round two of eating: Loukoumades. These are essentially fried balls of dough, dipped in honey, and coated with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Unlike your typical boardwalk or amusement park fried dough, Loukoumades are surprisingly airy and light.

Our next stop was inside the church hall to the makeshift market. Here, all sorts of trinkets, t-shirts, and **phenomenally tacky** cds were for sale, along with a food market and tasting pavilion (in case you aren’t full yet, and would like to try some Greek honey or cheese to prime your stomach for round three).

After shopping, we moved onto coffee. If you haven’t had Greek (or Turkish) coffee, you haven’t lived. These people know how to make coffee. Smoother and stronger than an espresso, a centuries old proverb sums it up well “Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.” Typically though, I like it a little less sweet than the old men drink it.  The preparation involves stirring the grounds in a little pot, heating them up precisely, and adding a little sugar, and then pouring it all into a small cup, being sure not to pour in the dregs.

If you are special, you finish your cup, turn it over onto the saucer, wait until it dries, and then let someone read your dregs (akin to reading your tealeaves). Preferably a grandmother. I know mine does.

And finally, the highlight of the evening, dessert! Greek pastry is so much more than the sad, oversweet baklava that you can find mass-produced for coffee shops. Greek pastry is a centuries old miracle of tweaking and finesse, resulting in perfect little bites of sweetness, richness, fluffiness and crunch.

I will admit however, that by the time I arrived at the pastry station I had already been defeated, and it took all that was in me to even photograph the dessert.

Here, clockwise from top left are some of my favorites: Kourambiethes (Greek wedding cookies with chopped almonds), Kataifi (finely shredded filo pastry with a walnut filling and honey syrup), Baklava (layered filo in a honey syrup), Amygdalota (almond macaroons), Mil-Feig (ie: mille-feuille, layered filo with pastry cream filling topped with whipped cream and almonds), and Finikia (greek spice cookies drenched in syrup).

greek desserts 2

Despite my protests, my mother had the foresight to purchase a few Kourambiethes and Amygdalota to go. On our way out, there was still an ever growing line for the food.

For those of you fortunate to live in near proximity to a Greek Orthodox church, I urge you to check out the local calendar to determine when their Greek Festival will be held this summer, and GO.

Yiassou!!

Shio Japanese Restaurant

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We all have one type of food we crave no matter what our mood is, and for me, that’s Japanese food. New England isn’t exactly the hotbed of Japanese cuisine, but when I was growing up, we happened to have a good little Japanese restaurant in town called Sakura. I regularly would beg for dinner out so I could eat miso soup and California rolls.

Over time I learned there were more exciting options than California rolls, and soon I moved onto Nabeyaki Udon (a rich broth filled with thick, chewy noodles and seafood and vegetables served in a cast iron soup bowl) and Beef Negima, (thinly sliced beef wrapped around scallions). I finally moved onto the Omakase chefs’ favorite sushi – and “please, hold the cooked shrimp”, because I wasn’t interested, thank you.

Sakura closed after I moved to San Francisco. I was sad to hear the news, certainly, but more out of nostalgia than any real loss. It wasn’t the best Japanese food, yet it was the place that opened my heart to an entire regional cuisine. However, I found out another Japanese restaurant opened in its absence when my mother started texting me photos of elaborate sushi rolls. It was called Shio.

tatamiluckycat

Fast forward to my big return to the Seacoast. I’ve been going on the gastronomic tour these past few weeks, eating at all the old haunts, and making a list of the new ones.

The first time we tried to visit Shio – on a Tuesday – they were closed and I had what we call affectionately in Yiddish, a “kanipshin”, which roughly translates to a big ole’ hissy fit. Two weeks in my hometown away from the big city and I really needed my Japanese food!!  When triple digit temperatures actually made the idea of raw fish in a blissfully air conditioned environment a necessity, we came back two days later.

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Shio is located in a half empty strip mall in Portsmouth, right on Route 1. This isn’t the type of place you’d be casually charmed to stop in after strolling by, you kind of have to know about it. If you aren’t the type of person immediately put off by neon sushi signs and a “Big Lots” next door, you’ll get rewarded by a pleasant looking restaurant interior. Shio has nice big tables, a sushi bar, and traditional tatami rooms, where you can take off your shoes and sit on cushions. The evening crowd is mainly families, although we saw a few dates, and it can get quite busy.

Let’s face it, it’s not Nobu, but the food is a notch above your New England neighborhood sushi joint. It filled my sushi cravings, used relatively high quality fish that wasn’t bland, and took greater care in plating. They took pride in their food.

Being a tee-totaler of late, we didn’t order any drinks (I know, shame on me), but I did observe a fairly well stocked bar, and some excellently kitschy cocktail umbrellas.

P1060792 Seafood Yaki Soba with Shrimp and Scallops ($14.00)

In addition to sushi, there is a good selection of cooked food made in the kitchen. Having grown up with a sibling that wouldn’t have touched raw fish with a ten foot pole, the relative variety of non-sushi options makes this more family friendly for those who haven’t yet hopped on the bandwagon. Even my grandmother eats sushi, then again, she also has a Mac and goes to Zumba classes.

At dinner, my father ordered the Yaki Soba which was unctuous, not too salty, and generously topped with seafood. The Dumpling Soup was a warming bowl of rich mushroom broth with little meat dumplings, scallions, mushrooms and vegetables (and was much better than the miso soup). Devon’s Chicken Katsu was lightly breaded with a great crunch, and avoided the typical katsu pitfall of being too greasy. It also tasted superb when I ate the leftovers at 11:45 pm, and was awarded my extra stamp of approval.

P1060794 Chicken Katsu ($13) lightly breaded and fried chicken cutlets

Although I’m not a “roll person”, the selections at Shio are creative and slightly more exciting than your average selection, using more traditional Japanese condiments such as plum paste, spicy kampyo (squash), or non-traditional additions such as cilantro, mango and fresh chile. My mother had the Rob Roll, which I’m fairly sure was named after someone named Rob, but immediately brought to mind the Urban Dictionary connotation of being very good at something unexpectedly after drinking a lot of booze.

P1060795    Rob Roll (11.95) Spicy crunchy yellow tail and avocado, topped with salmon roe, caviar, and fresh chili pepper. Side of Saba (Mackerel) sashimi ($4.50).

I ordered my favorite fish preparation, Chirashi, which is assorted sashimi scattered over a bed of sushi rice. This rendition was quite satisfying, and I found myself enjoying everything except for the imitation crab, which I could generally do without. I particularly enjoyed the variety of tsukemono (pickles), there were three beyond the standard pickled ginger.

P1060799  Shio’s Style Chirashi ($20) Assorted raw fish, eel, ikura, caviar and Japanese pickles on seasoned rice.

In the name of impartial research, Devon and I actually decided to go back to Shio for lunch, as the specials were quite reasonably priced. Interestingly, while the typical Seacoast lunch crowd is made up of women, we were surprised to see a crowd of mostly business men in button downs and slacks – clearly Shio is the place to be for a work lunch. Unfortunately, one of said businessmen spent twenty five minutes prodding his sushi with a chopstick, and left abruptly, but not before rudely telling the staff he was in a hurry, and wasting his entire meal. In his defense, the asshat convention was probably about to start without him.

Lunch specials were served with miso soup and salad, both of which I could have done without. While I generally like carrot ginger dressing, serving it ontop of iceberg lettuce pains me.  Devon ordered the sushi platter, which came with five pieces of sushi and a California roll, and I ordered the Sushi and Sashimi combo.

sushi platter Sushi Platter ($9.50) Five assorted sushi, and a California roll.

sushi sashimi combo Sushi Sashimi Combo ($12.50) Four sushi, six sashimi, and a California roll.

Although admittedly not as good as my Chirashi at the previous meal, the sushi was flavorful and lunch was a pretty good deal all around. Overall, two solid meals, a decent price, a lucky cat statue, and we will be back.

paper cranes

Shio Japanese Restaurant
2454 Lafayette Road
Portsmouth, NH

www.shiorestaurant.com

Shio on Urbanspoon

Portsmouth Farmers’ Market + Garlic Scape Pesto

One of the best ways to orient yourself in a new place (or in my case, a familiar place that I’ve been away from for a long time) is to visit the local markets and farmers’ markets. I instantly feel calmer once I know what is growing and in season. Just walking around, taking everything in and breathing, I immediately start dreaming of the possibilities in the kitchen, and spend less time worrying about being in a foreign place.

After a long week on the road driving from San Francisco to New Hampshire, we were a bit zombie-esque but jumped at a chance to get out into the sunshine and find some good produce. The Portsmouth Farmers’ Market is held in the parking lot of the city municipal complex and Connors Cottage Senior Housing building.

Despite pleasant pea-loving patrons, this was the location of scandal last year as some residents of Connors Cottage began complaining of early morning rooster crowing during market set-up. I always assumed the elderly loved early birds, or at least their specials. As a side note, that building used to be the old hospital and I was actually born there.

For the next couple of weeks we will be staying with my parents in their home on the Seacoast and then we plan on moving to the Boston area. Somerville? Cambridge? Newton? I’m not quite sure yet. We don’t have a firm timeline – but the concept of moving into your parents house with your significant other in tow feels a little crazy, so I’m just treating this like an extended vacation and plan on getting my act together quickly.

My mom and I are like two slightly deranged excited people when we reunite.  We like to get things done – walking on the beach, taking on big house projects, cooking any number of delicacies, and especially shopping together.

We hopped in the car and headed over Saturday morning farmers’ market with Devon in tow, who seemed slightly concerned at our level of general excitement. The first thing I noticed was that finding a parking spot was remarkably easier than doing the same in San Francisco. Win!

We have a method to our madness. Usually, we circle around the entire market a few times to survey everything, chat with friends, and plan our meals. Then we do the shopping. While my mom and I did the rounds, Devon went off to find food. The food options at the Portsmouth market are mostly bakeries, a few tea companies, a maple syrup company which has maple cotton candy, Applecrest serving up apple cider donuts (see below), a few pastured meat farms with breakfast sandwiches and sausages, and an Indian food stall. Devon ended up with a little blueberry muffin, and a home made hot dog. Of which I got none of… because, apparently I was too busy shopping.

[These donuts are very, very good. I generally hold back at the market though, because I prefer them hot (which you can get at the farm). And also, because it is particularly difficult to eat only one and not crave them for the rest of the week.]

One of the things that I’m going to have to get used to is the fact that I don’t have as easy access to nicely labeled organic, local produce all in one place. We certainly don’t have a Rainbow Grocery, and you simply don’t have access to the same options at the local supermarkets here. Fortunately, the majority of the farms at the farmers’ market are small, family run, and environmentally conscious. They use low-impact farming practices, even if they don’t pay for Organic Certification, so I can still feel confident in what I’m eating.

The Bounty: We didn’t over do it this week (sometimes we do), but came out with a good selection of mostly green vegetables. After a week of road food, I’ve been craving all the green I can possibly get!

Zucchini, Onions, Garlic, Green Peppers, Turnips, Beets, Fennel (Wake Robin Farm)
Garlic Scapes (Stone Wall Farm)
Green Beans (Applecrest Farm)

The Plan: I’m thinking of making zucchini fritters, Turkish stuffed green peppers with rice and currants, and a green bean and potato salad with anchovy dressing which I’ve been eying from the Leon Vol.2 Cookbook

With the fennel I’ll make my shaved fennel salad. I haven’t decided about the beets yet, because although I prefer them roasted, the idea of cranking up the oven in 90 degree heat seems a little silly. They’ll probably be shaved into salad as well.

You can also get all manner of other fun things at the market, including flowers, leather products, lambskins, home made soaps and candles, Kit Cornell Pottery which Kit herself sells out of the back of her van, and these extraordinarily happy yarn balls. I feel like if you got a few of these and strung them up at a party, everyone would have a wildly good time.

To the Kitchen: Once I got home, the first thing I made was Garlic Scape Pesto. Garlic Scapes are the shoots and bud of hard-necked garlic, and are delightfully zippy. Garlic scapes are not to be found anywhere in California markets because hard-necked garlic is primarily found in colder climates. Even though San Franciscans complain of the cold summers, this apparently does not qualify. Although maybe they do exist, and I was just forced to suffer for four years in ignorance.

Garlic Scapes are fairly versatile, and some of my favorite preparations are grilled, whirred into pesto, or chopped and used to impart a garlicky taste to stir-fries with some actual body and crunch. When they are plentiful, I like to buy them and chop them into inch-long pieces to freeze as well.

Garlic Scape Pesto

This recipe is for garlic obsessed, and preferably not to be served if you are aiming for romance later in the evening. I first tried Garlic Scape Pesto at Stearns Farm which was pretty straightforward but added some basil. But, I like this recipe because it keeps the flavor cleaner and yet adds both oil and butter, which seems a little bit fancy, but nicely complements the strong garlic taste of the scapes.

adapted from Marcella Hazan’s Food Processor Pesto Recipe

For the processor:

10 garlic scapes (cut into 1/4 inch pieces)
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts (or walnuts or slivered almonds)

Sea salt

To mix in by hand:

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons freshly grated romano cheese

3 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature

Put the garlic scapes, olive oil, pine nuts and salt in the food processor and process until fairly smooth – about 4 to 5 minutes, pausing every minute or two to scrape down the sides. You don’t want to skimp on this step, because if the pieces of scape are too big, they may taste too strong.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl, and stir in the cheeses and mix well. Finally, stir in the softened butter. Then go ahead and taste it – it might need a little bit more salt, and if you’d like you can go ahead and brighten it up with a little bit of lemon, but I usually think it is fine just as is.

Things to do with Garlic Scape Pesto: you can eat this stirred into pasta (just loosen it a little bit with some pasta water), or serve it with fresh pita or little crackers. Or you can rub it on chicken, and put it on the grill. You can add some to brighten up a summer minestrone, or on top of some fried eggs.