Lunch @ Ikea

Went to IKEA to buy a coffee table.

And as we were there, we took the opportunity to go to the restaurant.



IKEA restaurant might not be a great gourmet experience, but it is a nice place to savour 'exotic' European food for a very affordable price.



The most famous dish should be Swedish meat balls. (By the way, when the Greeks call them "Souidika keftedakia", I cannot help but laugh).

I had rocket salad with prawns and mushroom soup.



If you are reading this blog in UK for example, you might not realize how exotic they are in Greece.

When I was living in UK, I used to eat often these small half-cooked prawns. Here in Greece, I can barely find them.

And mushroom soup. The Greeks do not have this sort of cream soups. It was a shame that it was lukewarm.

There are also Greek dishes and, being a good Greek, Hubby took gemista.



He did not look very enthusiastic, but said it was fine.

Afterwards, we had also cream Cheese cake and coffee.

The total bill is 13.45 Euro. Maybe cheaper than at Goody's or MacDonald's.

We won't fail to visit the restaurant whenever we come to IKEA.

O Loulas @ Marathonas

When we went to Marathon, we thought we should eat pork chops, as someone told us that Marathon was famous for brizoles (pork chops).

I am not sure if it is true, but we found one grill restaurant and stopped there.



It is inside the town of Marathon. Decor was basic & rustic. There was a big fire place.



The menu was, as in many rural grill restaurants, not long and it did not take us much time to decide what to order.

Grilled bread with olive oil and oregano was obligatory order.



Tzatziki & cabbage and carrot salad. Judging from the texture of cucumber, tzatziki was not fresh.



This is a dish called "Tsoukalaki", aubergine, tomato & cheese in oven. OK, although 6 Euro for this seemed a bit excessive.



Fried potatoes were frozen variety.



And we shared 1 pork chop which was nice (in the photo it looks small, but it is actually of normal size; the lemon was huge).



At the end of the meal, they offered us yogurt with syruppy fruit (It was something unusual but I don't remember its name). This yogurt was excellent; dense and almost cheesy.



We had also house red wine which we liked much.

The food was good, if not exceptionally good and the price is fine for what they offer. We might come back if chanced to be in Marathon.


O Loulas
Dimokratias 1, Marathonas
22940 66108

Bread 0.50 x 2
Tzatziki 3
Cabbage Salad 3.50
Tsoukalaki (auberine) 6
Potatoes 2.50
Pork Chop 8
1/4 wine 1.50
Big Bottle of Water 1.50

Seoul House @ Alimos

[Update on 29 March 2014: This place was closed and then reopened in Zisimopoulou Street of Palaio Faliro. I have not been there yet].


One Friday evening we happened to visit a Korean restaurant in Alimos.



I don't think there are many Koreans living in Athens, maybe less numerous than the Japanese in Athens. Most of the Greeks had no clue about what Korean cuisine is.



Maybe that is why the menu is more Chinese than Korean and the Korean part is not much translated in English. There are some extra Korean items written on the wall, in Hangul only. The family who is running the restaurant is apparently Korean, but the waitress is Filippini, probably because the owners do not speak English or Greek enough.

So we gave up ordering single items (the main dishes looked rather expensive, but the price might include several side dishes, as the Koreans often do) and got a set menu, 15Euro per person.

First to come was a bowl of soup.



And small side dishes. Various pickled salads, Korean Omelette, and rice.




Stir-fried veggies.



Stir-Fried Korean glass noodles.



Squid and Prawns in Chili Sauce



Beef in sweet soy sauce.



We got pretty stuffed at the end of meal and at the end a plate of fruits.



Not the best Korean food you can expect, but the meal was enjoyable. If you happened to be in the area, why not?



Seoul House Restaurant
Leoforos Eleftherias 34, Alimos 174 55, Greece

Taverna O Thespis @ Plaka

So. If you live in suburbs of Athens, not that you find much chance to eat in Plaka, while it is the absolute favorite for the common tourists to find somewhere to experience Greek/Athenian dining.

Working in tourism industry, I thought I should know what the tourists are eating. Visit to Geros tou Moria was the first of my experiment. And here is the second: Thespis Taverna on Thespidos Street.

The restaurant is situated at the upper end of Thespidos street. It looks small, but actually has a quite large space outside.



The menu is classic taverna fare without twist or creativity (and it is OK not to be creative for Greek cooks, because most of the Greeks do not like innovation).

Bread.



I like this sort of yellow bread. Tyrokafteri was clearly homemade and mixed with black pepper. Nice. But 4.90 Euro for this? Really?



And a Greek salad. Looking from the top, it looks ordinary, but strangely there was shredded cabbage below the tomatoes.



Fried potatoes were freshly made and we liked them. I guess it is not easy to find fresh fried potatoes in Plaka.



As main dish, we had oven baked lamb (9.90 Euro) to share. It was very soft & juicy, as it should be. It is totally different from the roast lamb that the English people make. Greek oven roast lamb is like stewed inside the oven.



Over all, we liked the food, although it wasn't particularly cheap. We will be happy to return, if we happen to be there.



Bill, please!

Bread 0.80 Euro x 2 = 1.60 Euro

Water 1.80 Euro

Coke 1.80 Euro

Greek Salad 6.50 Euro

Tyrokafteri 4.90 Euro

Oven Baked Lamb 9.90

Euro Fried Potatoes 3.50 Euro

== Total 30 Euro



Taverna "O Thespis" 18 Thespidos, Plaka Tel. 210-3238 242



Ταβέρνα Ο Θέσπις Θεσπίδος 18, Πλάκα

*****************

Alternative Fast Food Choices for Lenten Fasters

As far as I am aware, serious Lenten fasters are rare among the Greeks. Even so, Greek fastfood shops offer Lenten fastfood for those who want to observe even at fastfood joints (or rather, fastfood joints are trying to be Lenten fasting friendly). We tried some of these Lenten fastfood.

First, my favorite fastfood joint, Grigoris.



Here is Koulouli with mushroom.



Korouli dough was more like pie pastry. Mushrooms were mixed with tomato sauce and reminded me of pizza.

Then, Goody's.



Fried Squid Rings were a failure in my opinion. Squids were so skinny and I thought I was eating a batter fry.



Prawn spaghetti instead was OK.



It is much better to cook at home, but still, as fastfood, I found it acceptable. 1 more week to go until Easter.

From this Sunday, even not so religious Greeks start to fast, to join in the Easter Spirit, more than to share the suffering of Christ. Agonas continues...

To Maridaki @ Glyfada

This happened a couple of weeks ago...

We went to Glyfada for a drive.



And when Hubby sees a sea, he gets appetite for seafood. So we stopped at a seafood taverna on the sea, To Maridaki.



It is not only Hubby, but virtually all the Greeks crave for seafood when they see the sea and sun. The restaurant was full.



Although it took some time to attract the waiter's attention, the order was brought to our table quickly. Fried squids, fried potatoes, cabbage & carrot salad, and tzatziki. I don't think that tzatziki goes with seafood, but Hubby says it is OK as it goes well with fried potatoes. Mmmm.



As you can see on the photo, potatoes were pre-fried or frozen sort. Fried squids were not enough cooked and very oily, as if they were so busy that they could not leave the squids in flying oil for enough time.



Salad was rustic and nice though.



It was very affordable, but nothing special in food wise. If we are happened to be in Glyfada and want to eat cheap seafood, we might go back, but if it is just for food, we would rather stick to fish restaurants in Piraiki which is just down the street for us.

To Maridaki
Paralia Glyfadas, Glyfada

Το Μαριδάκι
Παραλία Γλυφάδας, Γλυφάδα

Tel. 210-89 44 540

One Saturday Afternoon in Glyfada

Since this Friday, we don't have water in the kitchen.

Our building administrator says it is because our tap is broken, but I think it is somehow related to the central water distribution system of the building. Today we had an appointment with a plumber but he just did not show up. I returned early from work to open the door to him. Annoying.

Having substantial difficulty in washing dishes and pans, we were constrained to eat our this weekend.

Saturday, we went to Glyfada with a brother of Hubby. Hubby wanted fish taverna, because he said he wanted to fast (in a Lenten way). We gave a "pass" to Malidakia fish tavern which was very mediocre. We found this one called Nikolas tis Sxinoussas, but, after checking the menu, we said it was more expensive than what we wanted to pay then.



So we went to Vincenzo, Italian restaurant we went once. This is carrot, walnuts & Parmesan salad. Not particularly tasty, but it was nice to have from time to time as a change.



I had spaghetti allo scoglio as did the last time. Again, not a master piece, but for the price (12.60 Euro), it is a good value dish.



Hubby had a pizza. I don't like much the type of cheese they use on pizze, but let him have what he wants. :)

And afterwards, we returned to the fish restaurant for coffee.



We had 3 coffees and cost only 10 Euro.



Looking around, the food looked interesting. I will come back to try the food as well.

Antiquity of Piraeus

Walking near the Cruise port of Piraeus, we saw this archaeological site. Evidently, the archaeological ruins were discovered during the construction work which was brought to halt. There is an extension of this site on the other side of the street.

We had an impression that this construction site has been abandoned for quite a while, although the archaeological remains seemed to be clearned quite recently (otherwise there should be much more weeds).

There are some quite handsome stone blocks, which I guessed were part of a public construction.

The onwer of the land should be quite desperate when he found this 'treasure'.

Nemea

We visited Nemea this weekend.






In Nemea there is this rather attractive archaeological site. In Antiquity, Nemea was the site where one of the 4 great games were celebrated.


Now, Nemea is more famous for the wine production than for the archaeological site. After the visit to the site, we entered casually two wineries and bought some bottles of wine. It is nice, as we cound try before we buy.



The scenery around Nemea is beautiful. If you live in Athens and have a car, why don't you pay a visit in weekends?

Grafitti Collection

Collection of the grafitti I saw in the area Gazi-Keramikos-Metaxiourgio. Evidently I took these photos in November 2010. I remember I went there to look for Chinese restaurants and I think I found 4. These photos are by-products.