Well, Robert and I made it safely back from Greece last night! Below is a day-by-day account of our trip for anyone who is interested. Since this is a food blog, my notes revolve heavily around what we ate each day. Overall, the food was really so-so and I hate say that I have had much better Greek food here in the United States. If I ate meat, I’m sure I would feel differently because a lot of the grilled meats I saw looked delicious. Vegetables were surprisingly hard to come by and were always overcooked for my taste. And, since I don’t like tomatoes, Greek salads for me were nothing more than cucumbers with feta and perhaps a few olives. The most surprising thing: no pitas anywhere! Nearly every meal came with French fries and bread. We did have some excellent meals however. The broad beans in tomato sauce and yogurt with fruits were the most reliable foods. I drank lots of house wine, retsina and Mythos beer which tasted kind of like Singha or Sapporo. I am really looking forward to eating sushi and Thai food again. Here is my report (I am tired so I’m sure there are lots of spelling and grammatical errors – please ignore): Ellen and Robert’s trip to Greece (2005)

Hi everyone. Robert and I are off to Greece this Sunday. 12 days of nothing but sandy beaches, sunshine and the sparkling Mediterranean Sea. I, of course, am really looking forward most to the food (almost as much as I’m not looking forward to being on an airplane for 16 hours!) I will be taking notes on everything I eat and plan on putting together a Greek-themed menu for my website as soon as I can so stay tuned for that. Hopefully I can get some good food pictures during our trip. In other news, if you haven’t seen it already, I am currently the featured listener on eatfeed.com. I don’t know how long I will be featured there so be sure to check it out quick. It’s a great website to visit anyway; the podcasts are really interesting and very well done. Well, that’s about it for me until I return!

Since I have been attending my neighborhood farmer’s market regularly, I am now officially “eating with the seasons.â€? This is great but it also means that I can’t always find my favorites. Yes, I know asparagus isn’t in season right now so I shouldn’t be eating it, but that was always one of my staples. To fill this void, I have been branching out and trying new things. Last week, I picked up 3 small eggplants even though I have never been too sure how I feel about eggplant. There was an Indian restaurant that my family used to go to, however, that had a great grilled eggplant dish so I decided I would be safe in mimicking that. I cut my eggplant into 3/4 –inch thick rounds, salted it and let it rest for 1 hour. Then I grilled the rounds on a very hot grill pan until charred and soft and topped them with yogurt, chopped mint, thinly sliced green chili, pistachios and a light sprinkling of coriander powder. It was absolutely delicious – the eggplant was buttery soft and smoky and contrasted perfectly with the exotic flavors of the garnish. The mint, which came from my mom’s garden, was very refreshing. And it was an attractive dish to boot! I will put a recipe up on elliemay.com as soon as I can get my act together.