*** Posts on the 2006 festival can be found here, 2007 here.
This Festival is on our "must do" list every year. Though we missed last year, we’d gone to the previous three and always enjoyed the pastries, the food, the pastries, the friendly people, the pastries, and most of all, the pastries!
This year there was a bit of "June Gloom", but that didn’t hinder us at all. This festival has got to be one of the most organized! Everything from parking to traffic control, to adequate eating space is accounted for. This year there’s even an informational pamphlet listing the different foods and program schedule. Admission is just $2 – though we had a flyer for a dollar off admission, but decided not to use it! We think that this festival is worth every penny we spend here!
As you enter the front of the Church, the pastries immediately draw you in:
That’s Thiples staring at you – it’s just the beginning of this wonderful gauntlet. The tempting looking Kataifi at the right is a must buy. We ended up getting 3 Baklava, 2 Kataifi, 2 Saragli, 1 Kourambiethes, and 2 Galaktoboureko, and still got out spending less than twenty bucks(actually $16.50)! All pastries are priced from $1.50 to $2.50. The Saragli, which is like a rolled Baklava is the unanimous favorite.
There’s a large dining room serving items ala carte, such as Grilled Lamb Chops, Moussaka, Manestra, and Pastitsio, among others. But our favorite are the outdoor booths, for this reason:
It’s fun, the sun, the smells, the leg of lamb!!!! You can watch these guys working hard to keep up, as well as check out the leg of lamb roasting.
The booth next to the grill is selling Spanakopita, Tyropita, Dolmathes, but most importantly the leg of lamb plate:
The lamb was very well seasoned and very tender, and went well with the bread, feta cheese and Kalamata olives. Basically you break off a bit of bread spread some feta on it, place the olive (pit it first) and a slice of lamb on it – Delici-yoso! Repeat as necessary, until unable to move. The Leg of Lamb plate goes for $6.00. What would a Greek festival be with out Gyros? The Gyros booth sells a Gyros sandwich served on warm pita with Tzatziki, onions, and tomatoes:
Though the Gyros was pretty good, it really could not stand up to the leg of lamb. Too little Gyro meat really held this back. Directly across from the Gyros booth is the Saganaki booth. The Saganaki is a Greek Cheese that is served on pita bread – in this case during the cooking process some liquor is added and lit!
The Saganaki had a great "gooey" texture and was fun to eat. Though a bit on the salty side, this was really tasty ($5.00). After checking out the deli and other booths we decided to go home and hibernate.
But not before getting the leg of lamb plate to go along with some Dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves).
This is St. Spyridon’s 36th annual Greek Festival and it seems to get better every year.
Hi Kirk,
I think we have something like this here, but I’m not too sure as it’s a small event when compared to stuff like the Okinawan Festival and the Korean Festival.
I like Greek food and I’m going to try and visit more Greek restaurants soon.
BTW…this food looks pretty good and it seems like the prices were right.
I also tagged you for this meme that is currently making the rounds. Looking forward to what you have to say!
http://onokinegrindz.typepad.com/ono_kine_grindz/2005/06/five_favorite_b.html
Reid – I think I remember there being a Greek festival back home. One thing that made me laugh is the picture of the one guy grilling, with the three guys leaning of the fence – reminds me of home for some reason – wink-wink…..
Hi Kirk,
Are you trying to say something about our police officers? hehe!
Reid – No way am I gonna ‘diss Honolulu’s Finest 🙂
OooOoo, you best not dis da HPD! My brudda-in-law is one of ’em! ::smug grin:: Oh man Kirk! THE FOOD LOOKS GREAT! Except for the lamb ::crinkles nose:: I HATE lamb. Mikey likes it though! The kids like it also. I don’t mind ground lamb, I use it in meatloaf, mousakka, sometimes meatballs.
OH MY GOSH AT THE PASTRIES!! When I lived in Lomita, one of my friends Dad was Greek. Sometimes his GrandMa would come for a visit and she would make all those awesome cookies, turkish paste, and on and on. I would have given my arms and legs to follow that woman around! ::happy sigh:: Well, we now know who has cornered the baklava market. I have to move on to other things. I’m going to try some of the recipies on this page:
http://www.krinos.com/recipe.php#thumptag10
The very first item might be tomorrow. ::slurp::
Jo – Well you haven’t tasted my lamb, that doesn’t taste like lamb – an utter failure….but everyone served with a sandwich thought it was really good -until I told them it was lamb!!! A failure because it should’ve tasted like lamb, but didn’t…..Go figure!!!! LOL
I’ll post the recipe soon – though I don’t know who wants to eat lamb that doensn’t taste like lamb….
When we lived in San Diego we never missed the Greek Festival. What a great time!
Hi Michelle – Thanks for taking time to stop by. This is a really fun and delicious festival. And it seems to get better every year.
Hi Kirk. The festival is this coming weekend. All your wonderful pics of last year’s festival made me really want to go this year. Hope to see you there!
Hi JP – We’ll be there. I feel that this is one of the most well organized festivals in San Diego.
Hello! I’ve been having a ball reading my first “food blog” — yours! =) What fun and what a wonderful job you’re doing of filling us in on where to go and what to eat… Thanks!!!
Question: I adore gyros, absolutely love them, but am VERY allergic to MSG and have for the most part written them off for the fear of meeting that dreaded spice. Do you know if there’s a place — or a recipe — for gyros WITHOUT the msg? I’d be most grateful for your response.
Thanks again for a lovely hour of reading. My taste buds are simply trembling with the anticipation of something yummy… You write deliciously!
Debbie
Hi Debbie – Thanks for dropping by, and the kind words. You know, I’ve never tried to make “gyros meat”, so I’m unable to help you. I do know that many places get the meat from the same manufacturer – Kronos, so you may want to ask if they make their own meat, or get it from a vendor; it may make a difference.