Category Archives: Food

What we are eating and where we mention food.

Mafia Strongholds, Wax Museum, and Being Fed in Crete, Greece

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Wednesday, May 20 This afternoon Andronikos, Eric and Christi set out to go to an archeological site called Axon, located in the mountains. We followed the same road that we took the day we took the day we went to the monastery and cave last summer. Last year it had been and the hills were dry. Right now the hills are verdant and green, with the flowers in full bloom. It is absolutely gorgeous. Just like last year, we saw lots of goats running around on the hills and several hanging out on the road.

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We passed the monastery, but before we got to the cave we turned off onto a different road. We passed through several more small villages. One of them was the village where we had gone to the wedding with 3,000 guests a few years ago and has a reputation for being one of the most traditional villages left today. In another village, we spotted a 16th century church that looks like it is still in use. We tried to go in, but it was closed.

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The towns are nothing more than Continue reading →

DaVinci Science Exhibit and Dinner in Rythmeno

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Monday, May 18 Needless to say, after such a late night last night, we were off to a slow start this morning. By early afternoon, we had finally gotten moving. The other day when we were at the aquarium, we had noticed the exhibition hall next door was featuring a traveling DaVinci science exhibit. Another family friend had seen the exhibit when it was in France and had said it was wonderful, so Eric and Christi decided to go see it today. We dragged Andronikos and John with us.

Christi is ashamed to admit this, but she Continue reading →

My Brother’s Big Fat Greek Wedding

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Sunday May 17 — Today was the big day. The wedding began at 1430. Eric wasn’t feeling good, so he spent the morning resting. The women spent the morning obsessing about minute little details. The men waited anxiously, looking at their watches every 5 minutes until it was finally time to get ready. Costas has had a beard for a while now and his male friends decided the beard needed to go and forcibly shaved it off.

We arrived at the church 20 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start. The tradition is that everyone stands outside and waits for the bride to arrive. The groom meets her outside and they walk in together, then everyone follows them in. It was a small wedding with only 900 guests, and the courtyard outside the church was jam packed. Were we being facetious when we said “small wedding?” No. In villages, the whole village is invited, and weddings with as many as 5,000 guests are common. We went to a wedding with 3,000 people once a few years ago. It was crazy. In the cities, though, weddings tend to be much smaller. We noticed a few men were dressed in traditional Cretan costumes. Here are some of the more traditional dressers posing with Costas.

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The church is at the top of a hill, with a long path that leads from the parking lot up the hill. Here is a shot of it from the parking lot.

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We knew the bride had arrived when Continue reading →

Enjoying Ensenada and Its Food

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The last four days we have been eating a lot, exploring the town some more, trying to take care of some preliminary life chores that will make settling in at San Diego easier, and socializing. The weather has gone back to normal, which in the early spring means sunny and clear, but cold and windy. It looks like it should be warm outside, but it isn’t. We are running the heat in the morning and have to wear long pants and jackets when we go out. On one hand, it is a nice change of pace from the perpetual summer, but on the other hand, we are not used to cool weather and are having trouble adjusting to it.

Two things that are significant to Ensenada happened Continue reading →

Reflections on How We Have Changed Since We Were Last in Ensenada

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This morning we went out to breakfast as soon as we got up at another favorite restaurant of ours, El Rey del Sol, in downtown Ensenada. It is also just a few blocks from the marina, but in the opposite direction from Los Veleros. The marina is built next to a river, and we noticed a different kind of dredging machine in the river. Eric wants one.

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We walked by the new construction near the marina and were kind of surprised to see that little is done beyond the frame. This project has been planned for several years now, and grading work had begun while we had Kosmos here. And, come to think of it, the sign was gone. There used to be a big sign saying a museum was going to be built here. We wonder if that means the museum project has been abandoned.

Along the rest of the walk, everything else looked much the same. Several buildings were occupied by different businesses than before, but the buildings still look the same. There are a lot of coffee houses now. Coffee houses must be the new rage.

The restaurant was Continue reading →