Maria Adamopoulos shared a few secrets to authentic cooking at the food demonstration at the Greek Fest stage on Saturday.
“There’s no real recipe,” Adamopoulos said as she made spanakopita, a phyllo pie filled with herbed spinach and feta cheese. “You don’t go by the grams. You just have to go by your own feeling.”
She runs Ithaka Restaurant with her family on Yates Street, where many of the recipes have been passed down through generations. “We, of course, use olive oil in everything,” she said.
And if you mess something up or break a dish, no worries: “Just say ‘opa!’ ”
Food is a central theme of the annual community festival, held next to the Greek Orthodox Church and Community Centre, near Saanich Commonwealth Place, over two weekends in summer.
“Everything revolves around food in Greece,” said Jim Koutougos, festival chairman. “Everyone sits down together and takes time to enjoy meals. It’s something Greeks still cherish.” Even the festival charity recipient — a hot lunch program for elementary school students — involves food.
At the festival entrance, a Greek deli sells pastries, salt and feta cheese. People sit together at long picnic tables and watch the entertainment — a range of folk music and dance groups from around the globe. Folks eat plates of souvlaki, gyros, Greek salad, rice and tzatziki, drink beer and devour pastries.
The star of the festival is clearly the spit-roasted lamb. There are three large rotisseries at the entrance, a fan wafting the aroma to people as they arrive.
“When I trained in the army back in the old country, we learned to roast lamb,” said George Margaritis as he worked the spit. “We grew up with it.”
Margaritis came to Canada from Greece in the spring of 1969 at the age of 24. He learned to speak English working in the kitchen at the old Oak Bay Beach Hotel and built a career in the restaurant industry.
Now retired, Margaritis volunteers to help his community and stay connected to Greek culture.
“A lot of us who came over, we kept what we came with. Our kids are all integrated into Canadian culture,” he said.
Margaritis was interrupted by an offering of hot honey-covered doughnuts called loukoumades, a festival favourite.
“The pleasure of the people is to force feed them a bit,” he said with a smile, noting this as a gesture of love many cultures share.
• Greek Fest is continues Sunday and Sept. 1-4, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, at 4648 Elk Lake Dr. Online: greekfest.ca
