LIVING
LIVING DEC 2008
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING…
GREEK STYLE
It’s that time again and I
can’t believe it is a year since I last wrote about Christmas in
Greece!
Although George believes that
Christmas should be fun for children and food for adults, that
we should invest in buying good food for friends and family but
forget about buying un-necessary gifts for adults, the English
person inside me cannot altogether abandon buying gifts for my
family, so this year I decided to concentrate on food, bearing
in mind the credit crunch, the planet and simple organic produce
plus the joy of receiving something that has an obvious air of
effort.
I therefore bought eight
baskets from a local supplier in Aegina and filled them with
lovely things to eat. I bought eight packs of locally produced
pistachios from ΜΟΥΡΤΖΗ (one of my favourite shops) plus eight
packets of their home –produced sweets. The pistachios are from
their own land and they are home-cooked to achieve the right
balance of colour, crispiness and saltiness.
Their latest range of sweets are the almond and honey
combination which are then rolled in sesame seeds and when one
bites into them, the texture is a delightful chewy, nutty one
that has the edge over health bars because they are shaped like
sweets.
I bought bags of home-produced
oregano from ΛΑΖΑΡΟΥ, my local
greengrocer, situated next to ανδρεαδης
Home Stores. Mr and Mrs ΛΑΖΑΡΟΥ advise me on all sorts of
culinary combinations and I could write a book about the many
uses of oregano.
Their oregano is stuffed
tightly into small polythene bags and tied at the top with a
green satin ribbon, then displayed among the plethora of pulses
and nuts. My daughter always enjoys shopping there because they
usually offer her an apple as well as a box full of out-of-date
fruit and vegetables for the donkey that lives in the field next
door to us.
I picked lemons and oranges
from the trees in my garden and I bought sticks of cinnamon from
the herb and spice shop in Piraeus. Tied up with silver ribbon
into little bundles, these items added necessary colour to my
baskets.
Lastly, I bought hand-crafted
items from ΕΡΓΑΣΤΗΡΙ ΚΕΡΑΜΙΚΗΣ ΤΕΧΝΗΣ,
the stylish shop in Spirou Rodi selling tasteful items for the
house. This is a traditional, long established family business
where the whole family works towards producing the most
beautiful ceramic ware. Predominantly female, the women work
harmoniously together, bouncing off creative ideas
which they skillfully
translate into clay; these are baked in the kiln at the
‘factory’, a beautiful stone-built property where they are
painted and glazed before being transported back to the shop to
be artistically displayed in the window. Just to visit the shop
is a feast for the eyes and is retail therapy in the true sense
of the word!
As for Christmas cards,
sending them in Greece is not the painful tradition that
exists in England but I do like to send them to English friends
and famly nevertheless.
This year it snowed in Aegina
and for the first time in years, we had snow on the mountains.
I took photos of the children
and dogs playing chase, snowballs, even rolling in the snow. I
will print out twenty of these and commission the kids to paste
them onto card; it will keep them busy at the weekend and I will
have a set of unique Christmas cards to send!
Meanwhile, we wish everyone a
happy Christmas and a healthy new year!!!
Alison Lorentzos
copyright 2008
