Oh, and a warning. Another major strike is announced for the comming Thursday (8 July). It includes almost for sure the Port of Piraeus. We won't know the detail until a day or two before the strike, but if you can avoid travelling on the 8 July, please do.
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Do you know halvas?
If you are some kind of philehellene (should't I used this word in this context? :p), you must have at least heard about it.
The most common halvas (halvades?) are two: sesame halvas, which is sometimes called Macedonian halvas, and semolina halvas, which you might have eaten at Greek tavernas as a free treat.
I don't quite like either of these, but I do like Halvas Farsalon, i.e. Halvas of Farsala.
According to the confectioner, it is made from corn starch, sugar, oil and almond. As it needs very high temperature to cook, it is not normally made at home. I found a video of Farsalon Halvas making: take a look if you are interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35c8w4HrFAk
It is brown and opaque. Tastes very caramely because of the caramelised sugar. Texture is sticky. It is like oily "mochi" or "uiro" if you are familiar to Japanese sweets.
As you can suppose from the name, it is common in Farsala area and I bought this one in Lamia. If you're interested in Greek sweets and happen to visit these parts of Greece, it is something of a must to try.
In Athens, I only see in stalls at church yorti (yorti is festival), but I have never tried ones from stalls and I don't know if I can recommend it to you.
Another of my favourite sweets, Kasan Dipi.
It is a Turkish sweets made from buffalo milk, sugar and chicken breast (actually it is a caramelised version of Turkish chicken breast sweet pudding). But, if you eat so-called Kazan Dipi in Greece, it is a sort of Pannacotta which I don't fancy particularly (I don't even like Italian pannacotta so much).
I thought I could buy it in Athens only from Turkish confectionery Gulluoglu, but recently I saw something similar in Piraeus and decided to try.
The owner of the shop surprised that I knew Kazan Dipi and we started to chat. He said that Gulluoglu actually buy the stuff from his factory and pass it as their own. It tastes very similar indeed (I say 'similar' just because I don't remember exactly how Gulluoglu's Kazan Dipi was).
He was born in Constantinople, but later forced out by Turkey and that is why he is in Greece making true "politiki" sweets.
Next time, I will buy baklavas from his shop.
2 comments:
Do you have a recipe for halvas farsalon?
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Hello Petros,
I do not, but you can find it googling. That said, it is not a typical dessert prepared at home.
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