Food & Drink: Going Greek: While it's not the same as a two-week cruise, two local restaurants can transport you on a culinary trip to the Aegean Food & Drink: Going Greek: While it's not the same as a two-week cruise, two local restaurants can transport you on a culinary trip to the Aegean (November 03, 2004)

By Jane Knoerle
Almanac Lifestyles Editor

Cruising around the Greek islands is a great way to enjoy the sun, sea and sightseeing, but visiting five islands in 12 days allows little time to seek out the country's culinary specialties.

When visiting the Greek Isles last month, Sharon Heights neighbor Betty St. Clair and I opted for pizza in Santorini and pasta in Mykonos instead of real Greek cooking.

There was no chance to follow locals into the kitchen of an out-of-the-way taverna to see what was cooking. The waterfront cafes where we stopped for a bite and a beer offered a tempting array of seafood and, of course, Greek salad, but it was always time to head for the ship for a 6 p.m. sail-away.

Our ship, the Star Princess, served a typical European menu designed to please the many nationalities aboard ship. The one day Greek food was featured, the menu included Greek lemon soup and a tasty dish of lamb shanks with artichokes.

On an earlier trip to Greece with food writers, I did have a chance to have dinner in tavernas in Piraeus and Rhodes, where we sat outside on warm evenings eating excellent fish, Greek salad (made with chunky tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and feta cheese), good bread, wild greens (horta), and fresh green beans cooked with tomatoes and olive oil. There was always a big bowl of cut lemons on the table, along with plenty of Greek white wine.

The restaurant owner in Rhodes told us of rising at 4 a.m. to drive to the far end of the island to find the freshest fish for our dinner. Although fish is closely associated with Greek cuisine, it is still expensive and is sold by weight, not by portion.

In her book, "The Foods of Greece," Aglaia Kremezi says Greece has never had famous chefs to record its cooking tradition. She says women who came of age before World War II "are the last remaining link with a rich culinary past. In remote villages, one can still find the crude and tasty peasant food of our great-grandmothers, but one has to search hard for it."

She laments, "in the holiday resorts, hardly anyone cooks dishes typical of the region. Souvlaki (skewered lamb chunks), hamburgers, veal or pork chops, spaghetti and pizza are everywhere in Greece, often served with badly cooked moussaka."

Making moussaka

Moussaka is Greece's most famous dish. Its basic form consists of sliced eggplant and ground lamb or beef that are layered, then covered with a bechamel, sauce and baked. It can also include onions, tomatoes or potatoes.

According to Ms. Kremezi, moussaka probably was the invention of a Turkish chef inspired to use bechamel, a French sauce, as the topping for an eggplant and meat casserole. She says most versions are too oily.

Maria Petrakis of the Acorn restaurant in Menlo Park agrees. The Acorn has been serving moussaka since the restaurant first opened 30 years ago on Crane Street as the Golden Acorn.

At that time, customers were not as familiar with Greek food, so the Petrakises featured a Mediterranean menu, studded with some Greek specialties. Moussaka has been a daily item on the menu ever since.

"It takes all day to make and tastes even better the next day," says Ms. Petrakis.

There are many steps to making moussaka. First is frying the eggplant strips in olive oil, then draining it to release extra oil. "Eggplant is like a sponge," she says.

The Acorn's meat and tomato sauce is made ahead of time, using ground sirloin. Ms. Petrakis says the restaurant grinds its own meat. Making bechamel sauce is yet another complicated step.

Sharon Heights resident Ellie Flegel, who grew up in Athens, also makes moussaka with beef instead of customary lamb. "I've also learned to cut down the oil and take shortcuts with the recipe," she says, adding that it's a favorite of her husband, John.

Evvia restaurant

Evvia restaurant in downtown Palo Alto makes its moussaka with eggplant, lamb ragout, potatoes and a light bechamel. Customers also rave about the vegetarian moussaka at this handsome restaurant, decorated with a huge fireplace along one wall and a mantel holding large copper trays and pots. The wall opposite is dominated by an open brick grill.

When she learned we were going to check out Evvia's Greek cuisine, Ms. Flegel suggested we put ourselves in the hands of Yiani Dulles, who has been a server at Evvia for more than nine years. Good idea.

"You have to try the Greek spreads (taramosalata, tzatziki or melitzanosalata)," he said. That translates into cod-roe puree, yogurt-cucumber dip and roasted eggplant salad.

The platter came with grilled pita and grape leaves stuffed with rice ($14.50). The spreads tasted fresh and delicious. Photographer Carol Ivie and I wished there were more of us to share the generous platter. Most of the food at Evvia is served family style; sharing the huge plates of food is part of the fun.

Yiani also suggested a glass of Heliopoulos white wine from Santorini.

Since there were just two of us, we decided to forego the popular lamb dishes, and order mesquite-grilled striped bass with lemon-oregano vinaigrette and braised greens ($32.75). Mixed greens, or horta, are popular in Greece, where village people gather their greens from the nearby hills and fields.

The dish was perfection and could easily have served as the entree for three. It helped ease my regrets at not having time to sample seafood in Mykonos, where a nearby diner was putting away a platter of prawns, calamari and fresh sardines, all washed down with Greek beer.

Greek yogurt topped with toasted walnuts and honey was a perfect dessert ($6.50) at Evvia. Greek yogurt is thick, creamy and sweet, with none of the after-taste of some commercial yogurts.

Carol Ivie's baklava ($6.75), served with lemon ice cream, bore no resemblance to the sticky-sweet soggy stuff usually found in Greek restaurants. It even had a slight crunch to it.

Nearby, three women were sharing an Evvia sundae: a giant dish of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, hot chocolate sauce, butterscotch sauce and whipped cream ($12). It didn't look the least bit Greek, but nobody minded.

Thanksgiving at the Acorn

Back at the Acorn, the Petrakis family -- Maria and sons Nick and Kosta -- are getting ready this month to carry on a variation of the tradition started by their husband and father, the late Sam Petrakis.

Twenty-five years ago, Sam began serving Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless in appreciation of the good life he found after coming to the United States.

Several years ago, the Acorn shifted from feeding the homeless to serving paying customers, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. This year's recipients will be the Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula and Toys for Tots.

Instead of its popular ethnic dishes, such as Greek lemon soup and dolmas, the menu will feature roast turkey and all the trimmings, yams, fresh cranberries, Caesar salad and pumpkin pie with whipped cream, "all made from scratch."

The Acorn staff gets busy the day before Thanksgiving, baking pumpkin pieces, making cranberry sauce and roasting eight turkeys at a time.

On Thanksgiving day, there will be seatings at 2, 4 and 6 p.m. The price is $29.95 per person and half-price for children. Reservations are required; call 322-6201.

Life in Menlo Park is different from Maria Petrakis' home village, where she grew up with 36 first cousins, but she and her sons still observe traditional Greek hospitality. When Ms. Petrakis recently moved from her home in Menlo Park to a smaller house, Kosta and Nick spit-roasted two lambs in the back yard for 175 of their closest friends -- it's the Greek way.

The Acorn restaurant, 1906 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, 322-6201.

Evvia restaurant, 420 Emerson St., Palo Alto, 326-0983.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.