Home Cooking on Holiday
As parts of northern Greece are suffering severe weather, I checked ahead to see if this rumour about rain and hail coming our way was justified. According to the weather stations I looked up, it isn’t, and the bad weather further north should be over with by Tuesday. We did, however, have some severe cloud over Nimos yesterday morning:
We were invited to a barbeque on Sunday night and had a lovely evening. It made me think. Outdoor dining and cooking is something that just about every visitor to Symi can do (depending on your property and what they allow). Barbeques are useful because, in these temperatures, you don’t want to be slaving over a stove inside; that’s why you see outside ovens in some parts of town and the village. You can pick up disposable barbies (not the doll variety) from some of the supermarkets and use them. Or you can, if you are staying longer, buy cheap metal ones from certain shops. The hardware shop in Horio (near the surgery) for example, does them at various sizes and prices. Some properties may have them already installed in their courtyards.
If you don’t want to barbie your own dinner, you can find some accommodations provide you with meals to have on your balcony. Ask the owners, if you’re in a complex where they live on site or your tour operator. There are also many tavernas who deliver. You can get a pizza sent up from Yialos, you can call into Georgio’s in the village and pick something up for later, other tavernas also have a delivery service, and there are the giros places too. If your accommodation comes with a couple of rings and a fridge, then that should be enough to set you up for some home cooking. We did over a year at our first house with two rings and a fridge and even gave dinner parties. That was before we realised that the cooker in the saloni also worked, kind of. Some properties come with a fully fitted kitchen, while others have parts of a fitted kitchen, but there’s usually enough to get you started, unless you’re in a hotel, perhaps.
It was just a thought because sitting out at night under the stars with a couple of candles burning and the barbie on the go… Well, there’s no better way to spend an evening.
Actually, I can think of hundreds of better ways to spend an evening: winning the lottery, being awarded the Nobel prize, etc., It’s one of those expressions that I find vacuous but often use myself. ‘Nothing worse than toothache!’ Well, having your eyes poked out by a hot stick, or getting your hand caught in a mincing machine, being run down by a combine harvester… You get the point. But, for a night away from the hustle and bustle of island life, a quiet barbie with good friends and good food is hard to beat. Thank you to you who invited us. Everything was fabulous. The various lamb chops, the chicken dishes, the salads, the wine, the company, the cheese thing I can never remember the name of, the fruit salad, the pizzas – it was one professional barbie.
