"You can taste the flavour of a tomato when you eat a tomato."

So, this blog has a new format.

Every week, I am going to post a full interview with a new person, entirely about food. These interviews will be with people of all kinds, from all around the world!

Over the week that follows, I will be posting new recipes inspired by the interview.

If you want to be interviewed, or know somebody who might be, don't hesitate to email me at patchworktablecloth@gmail.com. I'm hoping to post interviews with some interesting musicians, artists and chefs as well as anybody who loves eating, cooking, or just talking about food. 

Anyway, let's get started with a little trip to Greece...

Athina

 Greece

I interviewed Athina over a big glass of wine on a summer evening in her living room in Rhodes, Greece. From a small village in mainland Greece, she was in her mid-thirties and ran the bar at an artsy restaurant in Rhodes' gorgeous Old Town. She was kind, bold, and just like her goddess namesake, very wise. 

Patchwork Tablecloth: What is your all time favourite food?

Athina: Xoirino prasoselino. (Χοιρινό πρασοσέλινο) It's pork with celery and leek.

PT: Do you like cooking? What sort of things do you make?

A: My favourite foods.  Dolmades. With other leaves too... cabbage.

Dolmades are leaves; (most often grapevine) stuffed with rice, tomato and onion. 

Pictured above, dolmades with egg-lemon sauce. Taken at a restaurant in Kos, one of Rhodes' neighbouring islands. 

PT: What's your favourite holiday? What do you eat then?

A: Easter. Lots of meat. Lamb on a spit over fire.

PT: What are your favourite vegetables? 

A: Leek, cabbage, and cauliflower.

PT: What about fruit?

A: Banana and peach.

PT: What did you eat growing up?

A: Everything. Salads, soups, pasta, potatoes, meat, yoghurt, olive oil, onions. Onions are in everything in Greece. This is also true with oregano.

PT: What is normally inside your fridge?

A: It changes with the seasons. Vegetables when I'm not busy. Yoghurt, sweet cheese, onions, garlic, milk.

PT: What foods do you dislike?

A: Olives! But I like olive oil.

PT: Can you tell me a bit about food in Greece?

A: It's very good. Generally healthy;  no butter, only olive oil. Home cooking....lentils. The cuisine is very simple and healthy. We use clear flavours; you can tell the vegetable and spice. It's simple. You can taste the flavour of a tomato when you eat a tomato. The cuisine got more complicated in the 50’s.  Turkish brought yogurt, stuffed things, moussaka, etc. Those foods are all from the 50’s. They became famous from a popular Greek cookbook. It had a very big influence on Greek cooking.

Lentils. Greek home-cooking in Rhodes.

PT: On a typical day, what do you eat for breakfast?

A: I can wake up and eat anything. I could eat a steak.

                           

PT: What about lunch?

A: Usually small; yoghurt, cornflakes. I eat a good meal after work.

PT: Dinner?

A: Anything. Pasta with zuccini, chiles, bacon and fresh tomato and garlic. Italian pasta with peperoncino, garlic, lots of chile pepper.

PT: What are your favourite desserts?

A: Everything. I love sweets.  Ice cream in summer. Chocolate, cakes, creams.

PT: What do you think is the most important thing to have in a kitchen?

A: A cooking pot and fire.

PT: What are your favourite drinks?

A: Everything. Wine, tequila or whiskey, gin and tonic, rum cocktail, good beer. I don't like vodka.

PT: Any hangover cures?

A: Depends on the weather. Soup in the winter, summer not so much. Patsas (Πάτσας);  a soup from lamb’s bellies. It smells bad but it is like medicine. 

Patsas seems to be a pretty well known Greek hangover remedy. It's tripe soup cooked with tomatoes, wine, cinnamon, and garlic.

PT: If you were making dinner for just yourself, what would it be?

A: Maybe I wouldn’t cook. Pasta or something. Depends. Maybe salad. Things that don’t take too much time. If I go through all this trouble, I want to share it with someone.

PT: What is something "weird" that you like to eat?

A: It's very relative. The head of the lamb, but that isn't so strange here. But I’ve seen people shocked by it.

PT: What is your favourite combination of flavours?

A: Ouzo with seafood. It's the only way to drink ouzo.

From left, clockwise: tzatziki (yoghurt with cucumber and mint), skordalia (a garlickly dip), mashed fava beans, octopus, brined caper leaves, and fresh sardines. 

Taken in Nisyros, a small, neighbouring island of Kos. Athina suggested that we travel there. This dish was prepared for us by friends of hers.

PT: What are your favourite ingredients?

A: Different spices for different things. I don’t like too many spices. I like clear tastes. I like cinnamon and meat.

PT: What is something interesting that you tried while traveling? 

A: Czech Republic- boiled bread. Weird. They used lots of cream, heavy food because of the weather.  I'm interested to learn Italian cooking. They use the same materials as in Greece.

PT: What is the best thing you can remember eating?

A:  A local pastry shop serves a cake with walnuts, syrup and cream on top.

Honey soaked, nut filled pastries typical of Greece. Taken in a Kos bakery.

PT: You're throwing a party! What will you serve your guests?

A: Lahano dolmades- it's with cabbage instead of vine leaves.  A salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, olive oil, oregano and feta- this would be in the summer. In the winter, cabbage and carrot salad or potato salad. Lots of different things.

PT: What do you want to learn how to cook?

A: Good phyllo pastry. I have to find the right balance.

PT: Let's talk seasons. What do you eat in the winter?

A: Lots of food. Different sauces. Egg and lemon sauce....it's only good in the winter. Too heavy in the summer.

PT: How about summer?

A: I only eat at night,  really, because it’s so hot. Salads. Dacos (ντάκος). They're easy, from Crete. Use dry bread-rusks, and wet them and eat with tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and feta.

PT: Finally, what's your favourite food smell?

A: Garlic, even raw. Cauliflower boiling.

Stay tuned over the following week! I'll be posting recipes and photographs for dishes mentioned in this interview!