TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Greek Dishes Are A Tasty Way To Get Away

Photo by MICHELLE BAKER

Saganaki, or Greek fried cheese, is salty, fried, aromatic, ooey and gooey. What's not to love?

ADVERTISEMENT

GREG and MICHELLE BAKER

Tribune correspondents

Published: January 19, 2009

Last weekend we felt like we needed to get out of the house, take a break and smell fresh air. We needed a vacation.

Now, if any of you are small-business owners, you know this fact: Vacations do not exist in our world. There is no accumulated vacation time, sick days or paid time off. Bottom line, if you ain't workin', you ain't payin' the bills.

So, in an effort to maintain sanity and normalcy, we take "fake-cations," little one-day outings where we pretend we are in some wonderfully adventurous faraway land.

Tarpon Springs was just the spot, a short 45-minute drive from Tampa proper. It's home to a large population of Greek immigrants, authentic Greek cuisine and some of the tackiest tourist shops known to man.

It's awesome.

The sponge docks are the main tourist attraction in Tarpon Springs. Local boat owners call out boat tour times like they are hocking strip clubs in the grittier days of New York's Times Square: "Twenty-five-dollar dolphin tours right here, folks! LIVE dolphins! Come watch the dolphins play!"

Strange coconut-shell monkeys, seashells of every type and swimsuit coverups with "I Got Juiced in Florida" proudly scrolled across the chest can be found in just about every little souvenir shop.

In our world, everything revolves around food, so naturally a fake-cation revolves around food, too. We researched the best eating haunts on www.foodbuzz.com, a great foodie site where you can find everything from recipes to restaurant reviews written by normal people. We were led to gyros and saganaki at Mykonos Restaurant; skordalia (a potato and garlic dip … VERY garlicky … don't kiss anyone after eating this) and dakos (a kind of tomato bruschetta with feta cheese) at Costa's Restaurant; authentic Greek cheese and olive oil at Halki Market; and fresh-baked goodies at National Bakery.

It was a good — scratch that — great day. We found a hot sauce shop, spoke with locals about the excitement over the recent Epiphany celebration, and ate really good authentic cuisine. For a moment, we were in Greece.

This is one of our favorite Greek dishes. It's salty, fried, aromatic, ooey and gooey. It's fried cheese! What's not to love? It's the kind of dish you make when you have company because it's such a showpiece. Just be very careful that you don't set the house on fire; in fact, you may just want to light it outside. Just be sure to yell "Opa!"

SAGANAKI

3 each 1/2-inch thick triangles kefalograviera cheese (You also can use kasseri, graviera, or kefalotiri)

1 cup milk

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup olive oil

1 lemon, sliced into wedges

1 ounce Ouzo (Brandy is a good substitute)

Soak the cheese wedges in the milk for 1 hour. Remove from milk and dredge in flour to coat all sides of the cheese well. In a heavy skillet, heat the oil on medium-high heat for about 5 to 6 minutes, until it is hot, but do not allow the oil to smoke. Pan-fry each cheese slice for about 1 to 2 minutes per side until golden brown. Remove the cheese from the pan and place onto an oven-safe pan. Pour on the Ouzo and light the sucker on fire. Shake the pan vigorously until flame extinguishes (trying not to ignite yourself, anyone or anything that may happen to be around you), and serve with lemon wedges.

Serves 6.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT