On the far
mountains of Crete, the goddess Rhea gave birth to a baby boy and hid it in one
of the caves from the vengeance of her husband Cronus, who threatened to
shallow to newly born. The Cretans took the child under their wing and
protected it until he grew to be the mightiest of the gods. Zeus felt so
thankful for the Cretans saving his life that he graced them with his utmost
quality, the Xenia. Xenia as in
hospitality, the courtesy to treat your guests like friends. This is a quality
that was imprinted in the Cretan DNA and has survived until these days.
Region of Crete - Official tourism campaign 2013 spot
In a Cretan home
all guests are treated equally, regardless of the depth of their pockets, the
color of their skin, the way they express their love or the name of their god.
The perfect expression of the Cretan hospitality is sharing food. It does
not really matter how luxurious the food is. It might be a simple dish of
cheese and walnuts, accompanied by a shot of raki, the local liquor. Or it
might be as luxurious as a plate of roasted goat meat along with a river of red
wine. Little detail, the Cretans never fill up your glass, because that shows
dislike for the person visiting their house, as in “drink up and hit the road”!
Smaller portions clearly send the message of liking the guest and wanting to
prolong the pleasure of their company.
The importance
of the food sharing gesture is that it brings people together. Through food
sharing we meet new people, we craft friendships, we strengthen family bonds.
Food is the glue, the catalyst in the chemical reaction of our feelings and
relationships. We can have conversations, share our problems or make jokes over
a dish. Food is a way to express our feelings. We express gratitude to a
helping friend with a freshly baked pie, or welcome a new neighbor with a
basket of cookies. A mother embodies all her love for her children in a
carefully prepared meal and a lover voices her lust in a steamy chocolate
soufflé. A friend adds more chili to your taco as a prank and a cook shows her
dislike for the patron by adding more salt to their dinner. It is truly amazing
how food is always present and goes beyond satisfying our basic instinct of
survival.
I started this
thought-sharing page with a story from my homeland Crete, because its culture
has the most profound effect on my life. I have not traveled as much as I
might have wanted, but I had the pleasure of spending five amazing years in the
melting pot of the US. There I met different people, from diverse backgrounds,
engaging in various activities. However, all these people came together with
sharing food, just like the Cretan xenia. I start this journey of re-living my
food stories to pay respect to all these people who gave me the pleasure of
sharing their food with me and filling the basket of my life experiences with
beautiful notes and useful lessons. Some stories are nice, some are sad, some
are awkward, mainly because of cultural differences, others make me laugh and
others make me angry. It doesn’t matter. They are all valuable. And as the
Mexican singer Julietta Venegas says “Yo te quierro con limón y sal”.
Everything tastes better with a pinch of salt and a splash of lemon. Even our
lives!
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