Saturday, September 25, 2010

It's all Greek to me...

I find traditional "Canadian/North American" food boring.

It's not that I will turn down a turkey dinner...or that I will snub mac and cheese or apple pie, it's just when I crave food, I crave something more exciting.  Maybe it's that I'm a self-loathing Canadian, or maybe it's just because long before I traveled the world, I dreamed about traveling it with my taste buds and did.

During my undergrad, I lived in Ottawa.  When you come from where I do, Ottawa is about as different as Tokyo.  There are people that are...gasp...NOT from Canada all over the place.  And the restaurants...well, sure, if you've been to Ottawa, you've probably seen what's on offer in the By-ward Market (Gotta love pubs and cafes!) but if you've ever REALLY been to Ottawa, then you'll know that Bank and Somerset's hole in the wall Chinese, Japanese, Sri Lanken and Indian cuisine is where it's at!  (Ceylonta!!!!  Oh how I miss you and your veggie string hoppers!)

But the other night, I was a whole different kind of nostalgic.  I was flooded with the memories of a really random night in 2006 in Korea, of sitting in a Greek restaurant in the heart of Seoul's Itaewan district with friends from Canada, the USA, Korea and Australia.  We ate souvlaki, pita and the most delicious, creamy, flaming feta cheese I've ever had.  It was one of those fabulous nights that you know you will never forget.  It was the best Greek food I've ever had.  And with all of those lovely memories floating in my head, I got sad.

I miss those random nights...I miss the drunken soju haze and I miss the people we used to share those crazy nights with.

In their honour, we ate Greek.  You can too.

Easy Greek Pita Dinner

  • Cut boneless pork chops into bite size cubes (1 per person)
  • Put the pieces into a ziploc bag with a couple of table spoons of Kraft Greek with Feta salad dressing.  Let it sit over night (or do it in the morning and let it sit all day)
  • Wrap Greek style pocketless pitas in foil and place on a very low heat in the oven (200)
  • Sear the pork until cooked in a skillet.  Remove & place in a bowl.
  • Spray the skillet with olive oil and stir fry peppers and onions in whatever was left by the pork.  Add pork right at the end.
  • When the pitas are warm, remove from oven.  
  • Spread pitas with Tzatziki sauce, add pepper, onion, pork mixture.  
  • Add cut up tomatoes,olives or feta.  We didn't have any, but I'm sure it would be delish!
  • Serve folded on a plate alone or with garlic roasted potatoes.


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