Sri Lanka – Ayobuwan (Welcome) II

In my last post I left you with breakfast at the World Heritage Site of Sigiriya, where the sun tanned my skin and the climb drained me of energy!  I left the city of Dumbulla that day and returned to Colombo where I was greeted with the last of the Durga Puja festivities. After waking up…

Sri Lanka – Ayubowan! Part 1

From one island to another, I visited Sri Lanka recently and felt right at home being back on an island, after my experience of living in Crete. But the moment I got out of the airport the humidity hit me full blast and I was brutally reminded of being back in Asia. But despite my…

An Armenian-Greek Wedding in Athens

A very dear friend got married last night and I had the pleasure of being there and enjoying all the rituals. Now, as this was a private affair, please excuse the lack of pictures as I obviously do not want to post pictures of my friend's special day, publicly, without informing her! 🙂 An Armenian…

GAFS 2018 – First Trip to the US& Conferencing at University of North Carolina

This week I came to the US for the very first time. I flew in from Athens to attend a conference organised by the Graduate Association of Food Studies (GAFS) 2018 and presented my research on the carob or The Cultural Heritage of Carob in Crete, Greece. The conference was attended by a supremely diverse set of…

Heritage food and Bobota – Corn Bread for the Poor (Part 2)

In last week's post we were with the participants at the "Food as Cultural Heritage" workshop in Ioaninna, Epirus, where they had made Portokalopita, a team effort that was a total hit! The other two items made were Zimaropita and Bobota. The first one was an easy number two on the list of delicious food…

Heritage Food and Portokalopita -Orange Phyllo Pie (part 1)

I recently conducted a 2 day workshop in Ioaninna, west Greece. The idea was to familiarise people with the idea of how our food is a part of our living heritage. The venue was the Youth centre of Epirus, set up by a husband-wife team. The perfect hosts with a group of Erasmus volunteers, my…

Grape Harvest in Crete

This week I went to pick grapes. It had rained for a few days and although this was considered good for olives, excessive water at the end of August is never great for grapes. They tend to grow soft and rot easily. But the morning of Wednesday the sun shone brightly so I donned my…

The Lakkos Project -Old Part of Heraklion

The island of Crete has 4 major cities and the one I live in, Heraklion, is its capital. So, like all capitals, it has a rather ugly, clinical part of it with modern buildings and the older, neglected part, clearly showing the stark gentrification and the two opposites.  Yet, it has its tiny alleys and…

Prickly Pears

If you have ever shopped for Prickly Pears then you would know the agony of touching them with your bare hands then coming back home and trying to extract those pesky little pin needles out with a tweezer!!!  I regretted my decision to buy them but of course, only momentarily because once I had cooked…

Carob Cup Cakes

The carob bean trade started around the 4th century BCE, making it one of the most sought after products around the Mediterranean. This pod which resembles a tamarind to us Asians, once  heavily influenced trade, farming practices, culinary cultures and its many medicinal properties were used to cure illnesses. It was mentioned in religious texts…