Grape Harvest

Grapes:
Crete has a long and ancient tradition with grapes.
For a really good explanation about the history of grapes in Crete click on this.( http://www.cretanpaths.com/en/post/its-grape-harvest-time).  Cretans  successfully cultivated and traded olive oil, cereal and wine during Minoan times and Homer informs us that , at his time, Cretan wines were renowned throughout the known world.


Today, the kids were invited to take part in this ancient tradition. They helped harvest grapes. We'll bring the grapes to the village of Melissia to make moustalevria with Katina. ( Family- we are going to melissia this weekend to spend the night with Katina and we'll visit the girls in Kastelli also) Since Katina is old, she has such great knowledge of the ways things were done. This is the time of year people pick their grapes, press the grapes for wine and make moustalevria which you can see down below.

Theo cutting grapes but not really liking it :) 

moustalevria- grape pudding sprinkled 

with sesame and walnuts- 

made in September around here. 

I'll show step by step once with 

make it with Katina in the village

On another note....

Paul is making co-klus today. Do you know what that is?

 Think of a creature in your garden that has a shell, 

is squishy and has two antenna.

Yes, that's right- he is making snails today. 

It was quite the discussion at the market today. 

Paul was given much advice as to the best way to prepare them. 

People wanted to come over and eat with him and share a glass of wine in the process. 

There are two ways to cook them, fried or boiled ( cochinestes) with tomato sauce. 

The locals here are all for cochinestes even thought the recipe called for for frying. 

Many people just enjoy the potatoes/broth that are cooked in the water of the snails. 

Dinner at Nectario's House

We went to Nectario's house for a great dinner/ cretan bbq.  Nectario, Thanassi, Thanassi's wife Christina and their adorable daughter Julia, Paul, the boys and I enjoyed grilled veggies, local brizola ( pork chops), loukaniko ( locally made sausages, which were incredible). Again, nothing in America tastes as good as the food here. I am not sure if is the soil, the sea air or what but everything is flavorful.  Cretans take delight in their food. 

The ugliest thing on the table is the most delicious in this case

Loukaniko  sausages are the dark ones in the front of the picture. They are ugly but incredible! The others are store bought and paled in comparison. 

Nectario preparing the veggies

Thanassi and Nectario preparing lamb, and brizola

while the girls drank their wine out of HUGE glasses.  Nectario is well versed in hospitality and food. He is an expert in wine selection and these cups are to let our noses go into the cups along with our mouth while we drink our wine to get the full enjoyment. 

LOUKAMADES 

We stumbled upon a delightful place  in Hania to have dessert. They serve spoon sweets and loukamades. Loukames are fried dough balls with a sweet syrup on it and sprinkle of sesame or walnuts. Paul and I chose traditional and the boys chose.........

loukamades covered in nutella!

Such a treat! 

Spoon Sweets 

Here are my favorite items on the menu..spoon sweets. These are very traditional. My favorite is quince. I had it in the village of Katsamatado when Adonia gave us some in November. 

Ever since then, I am hooked. These are kumquats. They are not like jelly or preserves. These are very sweet and retain a nice texture. They are not mushy at all. They are delicious.  Here's a bit of history on spoon sweets http://greekfood.about.com/od/discovergreekfood/a/spoonsweets.htm