APPETIZERS

DOLMADES - vine leaves stuffed with rice and then rolled. Served, most often, cold as appetizers. Simple in appearance, this dish requires numerous cooking operations in order to achieve the hint of lemon flavor that tantalizes the taste and opens the appetite. Sometimes served hot with an avgolemono sauce on top.  Its origin is thought to be from Thebes about the time of Alexander the Great.

TlROPITES - Triangles of paper thin glazed phyllo pastry filled with feta cheese and served piping hot, containing, egg, butter, and an unforgettable flavor to whet the appetite.

SPANAKOPITES Baked spinach and feta cheese puffs in buttered phyllo pastry, with egg, onion, butter, olive oil, bread crumbs.

TARAMOSALATA - Greek caviar combined with bread, oil, onion, and lemon to compliment any meal as an appetizer.

TZATZIKI -  A yogurt, cucumber and garlic dip to be served chilled on its own or with pita. Great on a gyro.

AVGOLEMONO SOUP -  Instead of penicillin, the Greeks use this chicken, rice and lemon soup to cure all colds. Avgolemono is so good, however, that you don't have to be sick to enjoy it.

MAIN COURSES

ROAST LAMB - Lamb prepared in the traditional Greek way with garlic and oregano.

MOUSSAKA -  A baked delicacy prepared with sliced eggplant, lean ground beef, onions, tomatoes, butter, eggs, milk, cheese and seasonings. The national dish of Greece.

ROAST CHICKEN -  Greek style, with garlic and oregano.

GYRO - Thin slices of barbecued meat specially seasoned with herbs and spices, served with tomatoes and onions on pita bread, and topped with tzadziki. Best off of a rotisserie.

PASTITSIO - A Greek "lasagna" combining macaroni, ground meat, cheese and covered with béchamel sauce.

GREEK SALAD - A tomato and cucumber salad seasoned with onion, olive oil, vinegar, fete cheese and oregano. Traditionally, no lettuce in a Greek Salad!

PILAFI - Fluffy rice simmered in butter, spices and rich chicken stock. Perfect with all dinner dishes.

PASTERIES

MELOMAKARONA - Honey coaches sprinkled with a spice-nut mixture

KOULOURIA- (Also called Koulourakia) - Breaded butter cookies with a light sugar glaze. Perfect with coffee.

BAKLAVA - Thirty or more nut filled, paper thin layers of glazed phyllo sheets of pastry soaked in pure honey make this the king of pastry desserts. Every country in the Near East claims baklava is its own.

KOURABIEDES- Sugar covered crescent shaped cakes that melt in one's mouth. They are served at weddings, at Christmas, and on special occasions, such as namedays and holidays.

DIPLES - Honey rolls so thin and flaky that they crumble when they are bitten. In Greece this delicacy is often cooked and sold at the panigiria or fairs where arts and crafts from every region are proudly displayed for sale.

KATAIFl - A delicious pastry made of shredded phyllo rolled with nuts and honey and sprinkled with syrup. Found throughout the Mediterranean.

LOUKOUMADES - Feathery light honey tokens or sweet fritters deep fried to a golden brown and dipped in boiling honey. At taste delight from ancient Greece where they were given as tokens to winners of the games at the festivals

COFFEE

GREEK STYLE - This is a thick, powered coffee that is made in a brickee (or brika), which is traditionally a small brass pot with a long handle. Modern advances have given us stainless steel brikas.  This is not instant coffee, and even though powdered, the coffee used does not dissolve. The grounds settle to the bottom of the cup.  When you order Greek coffee, you must specify plain, sweet or medium-sweet (sketo, glyko or metrio in Greek, respectively).  If there's a gifted Greek grandmother (a Yiayia) around, you can turn your demitasse coffee cup over and she'll read the grounds left in the cup to tell you your future.