The Foods of the Greek Islands: Cooking and Culture at the Crossroads of the Mediterranean [Hardcover]

All the dishes I have tried until now have been a success, and two are the main reasons: 1. The recipes have been adapted to the modern way of cooking 2. The ingredients have also been adapted so that one can find them outside of Greece without compromising in taste or authenticity. There is also a very helpful list of US sources for original Greek products.

I definitely recommend this book! It's one of the best cookbooks I own -- and trust me, I own many...

The first source of wonder is the great cultural diversity affecting the history of these islands. Many of the islands have gone through rule by ancient Greece (typically lead by the Athens city-state), Rome, Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire), Islam, Ottomans, Italians (specifically Venetian and Genoese), Turkey, and Modern Greece. The second source of wonder is the agricultural poverty of many of the islands. Some larger islands such as Crete, Lesbos, and Chios seem to have a viable agriculture, but most of the smaller islands need imported food to survive. The third and most amazing source of wonder about the Greek Island cuisine is the lack of seafood. There is literally so little commerce in seafood on the islands of the Aegean that there are no fish mongers on most islands. The reasons are that, apparently, the number and size of fish in the Aegean is simply very small, and, all the good stuff gets shipped off to Athens for sale in the markets of the capital. This is why salt cod from Portugal or Scandinavia is one of the most commonly cooked seafoods. The only local seafood that seems to be prominent in the island cuisine is the mollusks (squid, cuttlefish, and octopus). It doesn't end there. It is also true that traditionally, there is very little baking done on most islands, as there is very little wood remaining on the islands after thousands of years of habitation. About the only thing really distinctive of the islands' cuisine is the foodstuffs which can be foraged.

And yet, this cuisine is interesting and distinctive. I cannot say with any authority how distinctive the island cuisine is from the Greek and Turkish mainland, as I have yet to read and review books on Greek or Turkish cuisine, but I can say that there are things which set it apart from the general world of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The most distinctive preparation of the Greek Island cuisine according to the recipes in this book seem to be 'Savory Pitas and Pies' encrusted with either a Cretan phyllo dough, a standard pastry dough, or commercial puff pastry. Most of the savory pie contents are vegetables and cheese, with fennel, leeks, onion, tomato, feta, zucchini, and eggplant being the most popular. Lamb is definitely the favorite meat filling, but pork, octopus, and salt cod appear as well. The variety lies not only in the fillings and crusts, but also in the shapes and methods of preparation. Some are shaped like empanadas and fried, some are shaped and prepared like calzones, some are prepared in a coil from a roulade, some look like pot pies straight from the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Another distinctive element of island cuisine is the meze, which the author at one point mistakenly translates as 'hors d'ourves'. Diane Kochilas, an authoritative writer on Greek cuisine, in her book 'Mezes' says Meze, short for mezethes, denotes small dishes served typically at small eateries like 'mezethopoleion'. Even our author describes these dishes as being much more similar to something eaten at an afternoon break than as a pre-dinner starter. If you need a French term for them, 'amuse bouche' may be more appropriate.

Other chapters are 'Fish and Seafood (Scarce but Excellent)', Succulent Meat (Lamb, Pork, Veal and Chicken)', 'Beans, Rice, Bulgur, and Pasta', 'Seasonal Salads, Vegetables and Potatoes', 'Bread', and 'Island Desserts'.

The prominence of pies, pasta, and breads in the island cuisine makes up another great mystery in that Crete was identified as the epicenter of the healthy 'Mediterranean' diet. The puzzle is how the high incidence of cooked rice and processed wheat in the diet and the apparent less than expected incidence of seafood leads to a healthy diet. What about all those carbs!!! I'm not a fan of low carb diets, but I just thought I would bring out that anomaly to entertain your mind, dear reader.

Greek ingredients are almost as easily found in our megamarts as are Italian foods, but there are some ingredients for which you will have to go out of your way to acquire. Aleppo pepper, in particular, seems to show up in almost every savory recipe. Another problem with ingredients is the author's claim that Atlantic and Pacific fish simply cannot reproduce the taste of fish taken from the Ionian or Aegean seas.

In spite of all the puzzles this book creates for me, I must say that this book is a worthy exposition of a cuisine. Think of it as the food of Achilles and Odysseus from the movie 'Troy'.

The photography of the people of the Greek islands is evocative. The photography of the dishes is average. Each recipe is identified by its Greek name with a useful English translation. All recipes are good, some are extraordinary. Some are easy, many, especially the pitas and pies, are involved. The author's identifications of the island(s) from which the dishes came are inconsistent. Sometimes it is in the title, sometimes it is in the headnote, and sometimes it is absent.

This book is excellent if you have no familiarity with Greek or Eastern Mediterranean cuisine and you are adventuresome in the kitchen. And, the story of the terroir of the Greek islands is as interesting as the food itself. Opa!