On food and kitty cats

I am stuck at home, sick from a flu, so there is good time to have some comfort food - or some food memories at  least. Here's some of my best food memories from my trip to Athens last summer.

Sharing food

I don't know if sharing food off one's plate is a greek thing or an improviser thing but I really love it! For everyone who is seriously unfamiliar with the custom (like I was), what you do is you each order something, but then you taste other people's dishes. You might share a salad and a bunch of ribs for example with someone, and possibly have a few nibbles of everyone else's food as well. Then you either pay according to the dish you originally ordered or split the whole bill. In any case, it is more common to pay the whole table's bill together, rather than have seperate bills for each person. You can of course work out from the menu how much approximately the stuff you ordered costs, and contribute that much to the whole table's pot of money.

My food culture comes mainly from the Northern parts of Finland, where it is considered polite to refuse food given by your host for about three times before you actually come and join the table and eat the food you host has prepared to you. I find a twisted sense of humour in this habit, but in reality, and especially if you are dealing with people who do not know that that is the polite social rule, it is much more practical to just throw away that sort of attitude to eating food. I think in the end food is best, when it is shared, and if your table partners offer you a taster of their dish, you should always take it. You can find new tastes and dishes that you might fall in love with, plus you will feel more connected with other people. Sharing is caring.

Ice cream and other evening snacks

The good thing with Athens is that you can get tasty and affordable snacks late into the evening. For example, a pita bread filled with chips, falafel and salad only cost around 2,5 euros at a local fast food place. Ice cream costs around the same, so it's not that much cheaper than elsewhere in Europe, but boy, was it tasty. I absolutely love italian style ice cream and there were plenty of italian style ice cream places (and greek yougurt ice as well if that's more your thing) around the Monastiraki square area, where I was based at. This ice cream flavour in the Picture is watermelon and it went straight into my top 3 of best ice creams I have ever eaten. The ice cream places were open really late as well, so they made a lovely snack right before bed. 

The local taverna

We were tipped off about a local restaurant that does amazing food with reasonable prices by our local improv festival organisers. I ended up returning to the restaurant a few times, as the food was so good. On the first night, the rsetaurant was able to seat our whole Group, which was a small miracle as we must have been closer to a  hundred people. I enjoyed interesting table top conversations about feminism and improv, along with the best pasta dish I have ever eaten. The cheese just melted in my mouth. 

It was in the terrace of this restaurant, whilst eating a moussaka, on the last day of my stay in Athens, that I suddenly heard faint meowing. I looked around, bewildered, for a bit, until I noticed something moving in the flower patch next to me. The noise came from tiny kittens, probably born within a few days. The mother cat, was moving her kittens, to the spot right next to my table, one by one. Now, I am not a major cat lover, but the sound and sight of any baby animals is heartwarming, and I was so happy to witness this beautiful moment. I wonder how many cat mothers in the city have to take care of their babies in a flower patch somewhere, and what happened to thos kittens after that? Did they survive? And what will their life be like in the city, that is known for it's massive stray cat population?