Greek Salad – it’s all about the olive oil and Feta cheese.

Our first meal in Athens had to start with Greek Salad. Ron has always been a fan of this salad and so I knew we would start with that. The salad was short on lettuce and cucumbers and long on tomatoes. The salad was dressed with straight olive oil and a little S&P. We’ve never had a greek salad dressed that plainly before. Before we indulged I commented to Ron that authentic Greek salad must be all about the feta cheese. I was right – the feta was perfect and when crumbled over the salad imparted that flavor to the vegetables. The crusty white bread served with the salad brought out the delicious flavor of the olive oil we dipped it in. The meal started so well – it was unlikely the next course could improved upon the 1st. We ordered a stuffed tomato and giant beans. In ordering the beans I was hoping for green beans and therefore serving as a vegetable serving in my typically balanced diet. The giant beans turned out to be enormous white beans. They were cooked in a nice tomato sauce. The roasted tomato was stuffed with rice and had an interesting flavor we could not place. We were doing well so far at choosing Greek food. We were let down with our main course selections; Veal with egglplant and Lamb with vegetables. For our taste they were too overcooked. That is how many Greek dishes I have tried in the U.S. have seemed. So far the hot entrees rang true to that experience. The lamb had too much dill seasoning in it. We ate only a few bites of the lamb dish and about half of the veal with eggplant. The main course reminded us of the food at Fadi’s in Houston. We love the fresh less processed food – but once you start with the hot plates our interest wanes. For dessert we shared a yogurt and berry gelato at a sidewalk stand. DELICIOUS! We're signing up for all the fresh yogurt items we can consume in the next two weeks.