In one of our
outings on the Greek island of Lesvos, me and my friends are seating quietly at
a restaurant by the sea. I think we are following Ilya’s footsteps in Never on Sunday and after a long day of
roaming in the country “we all go to the seashore”! The restaurant is great,
one of the most famous on the island for its charming environment and its
delectable cuisine. Our order of appetizers included the local delicacy, the gözleme.
Gözleme is a fine example of culinary traditions crossover in the
Mediterranean basin. It is the typical street food in Turkey. Its name is as
divine as its taste. “Göz al-melek”, the root of the word, means the eye of an angel and it is probably
given by its eye shape, in combination with its ambrosial taste. The origin on
this delicacy makes circles around the Aegean Sea, from Ancient Greece to the
Byzantine kitchens and the great chefs of Ottoman Topkapi Palace, and then back
to the islands of the North Aegean. On the culinary world map, the gözleme is
considered a typical Turkish dish. However, the Mytilenians, residents of the
Greek island of Lesvos, take tremendous pride in their gözleme. It is featured
in the menu in the majority of the local restaurants. Plus, every summer, there
is the Gözleme festival on the bay of Mystegna, a small fisherman village,
where the local ladies cook a vast amount of these pastries to treat the
visitors.
The gözleme is a
simple thinly-rolled piece of dough stuffed with a wide range of fillings, such
as meat, vegetables or cheese and cooked on the griddle. The Mytilenean version
though is fried and the filling is exclusively made of cheese. What makes this gözleme
unique is that the cooks here have a variety of delicious cheeses to choose
from for the stuffing. The traditional feta cheese, which features a distinct
taste due to the local sheep milk, the ladotyri, a sheep milk cheese stored in
olive oil, and the myzithra, a soft white cheese with a smooth taste, are only
a few of the dairy products the local cooks use in their recipes. Additionally,
instead of the typical griddle cooking, Mytileneans fry their gözleme in olive
oil, which they find in abundance on the island. Lesbian olive oil has a light
texture, is smoother to the taste buds, with a fruity aftertaste and a golden
yellow color that pleases the eye. This smoothness is often considered a
weakness, compared to other varieties of Greek olive oil. However, in frying
the gözleme, this particular olive oil is delicate enough not to overpower the
flavor of the cheese, but at the same time strong to make all the other flavors
explode in your mouth.
Mytilenean style gözleme (Photo retrieved from www.radiokaloni.gr)
Back to the
seashore, where me and my friends are engaged in a vivid conversation, waiting
for our gözleme. The dish is finally served and it tastes deliciously. Still, one
of our companions is clearly unhappy. My friend Eleni is whining about the size
of the portion. How could a 7-inch half moon shaped pie be enough to feed five
people? We tried to comfort her by saying that size is not always important,
and that in this case the taste was more than satisfactory, but our arguments
fell through.
Despite of all
the concerns, at the end of the meal we, including Eleni, were all full and our
appetites were satisfied, regardless of the size of the portions. However,
something about the eyes of the angel
was not enough to satisfy the eyes of Eleni (probably the rest of us too, even
though we did not voice it loudly). Thus, the question that rose was: should
the food satisfy the stomach or the eye?
Opinions are
definitely split. On one side there are those who support that the world is
full of people struggling to win their food that the way it looks on a plate is
of minor importance. On the other hand, the artistic people and food stylists in
the culinary universe say that well-plated food can please the eater and
satisfy her soul. Scientists have also shown that the judgment on whether the
food tastes good relies primarily on our visual capabilities. In other words,
we know when a dish will satisfy us when we see it, even if we cannot taste it
or even smell it.
Of course, there
is always the Greek way. For the Greeks, the visual cue for liking a dish is
triggered by the abundance of food. When the table is full and there is a
considerable variety of dishes, then the eaters are satisfied. Plating might
not always be a decisive factor, as long as the eye catches a plethora of
bites.
Thinking back to
the dinners I had at my American friends’ houses, there is a considerable
difference in the amount of food that is put on the table for the guests. Truth
to be told, I had the most delicious and fulfilling meals at my friends houses.
But what was always getting my attention was that for a casual dinner, the cook
was preparing just enough food to serve a big portion to everybody, and nothing
more. As if leftovers would cast a foul spell on the fridge. As a person that
had to clean the fridge from bad smelling food countless times, I understand
the point of this no-leftover tactics.
For a Greek cook
though, having people over means cooking for an army, even though she might
expect a handful of friends. I remember my American professor, whenever I was
inviting his family for dinner he would say: “Please, don’t cook a lot! Just a
simple dish would do”. I never took his request into consideration. There was
always plenty of food on the table, because the Greeks always cook a portion
for the stranger, in case somebody shows up at our doorsteps unexpectedly. Once
again the xenia of Zeus makes a royal appearance in our hosting tactics.
I recognize the
advantages of both hosting practices and I cannot really decide which one is
better. Perhaps I don’t want to, as I respect both cultures. For the time, I
will enjoy a big portion of homemade gözleme with my little nephew, hoping that
it would please both our eyes and our palates.
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