I must not travel in the right circles.  I have been on Paros for nine years and just ate sea urchin roe for the first time.

It was served as a starter/appetiser at a fish taverna to a tour group of Vespa owners.  We were along for the ride.  I would say the dish was well received although a few were not brave enough to try it.

I enjoyed it though I would not rave about it.  It seems that most delicacies, such as caviar, are an acquired taste.  Although I was so involved in the gastronomic experience that I forgot to take a photo.  This one is from Italy but looks exactly like what we were served.

Sea urchin is quite popular in Asian cuisine, including sushi.  Several organizations are studying how to commercialize its aquaculture. 

When I first arrived on Paros it was not uncommon to see piles of sea urchin shells left by fishermen who had harvested the delicate innards.  The last few years, however, the eatable variety has been scarce.

Here is a recipe from an Oregon State economic project:  With the roe from a dozen sea urchin use salt, pepper, lime juice, butter or olive oil. Sauté while stirring gently at very low heat.  Cool and serve with crackers or toast.

Enjoy!

Watching Olympic Airways become Olympic Airlines become Olympic Air continues to be interesting. The most recent development sees the new owners, Marfin Investment Group, announce a public contest to design a new logo.

They are calling for new logos to be submitted by professional designers, advertising companies and the like. Then the public will be able to vote on three finalists. Watch this space for a link to the yet to be created voting web site. The winning designer will receive 20,000 Euro.

Even better, those voting will be entered into a draw. Fifty winners will receive two round-trip tickets each for OA flights in Greece or abroad from October 1, 2009. So start day dreaming about where you want to fly.

During Olympic Games season the organizing committee is very zealous about only allowing sponsoring companies to use their name and five interlocking rings symbol. The Greek airline, however, appears to have an equal claim. In any case they are insisting that the rings remain part of the new logo. That appears to be the only restriction.

For more information designers should contact Marfin, voters should follow this blog. I will post the link as soon as it is announced.

Update: I just discovered the voting site on 3 July; it expires 5 July. It is in Greek only.

Read more about Marfin Investment Group and Olympic Airlines

I just discovered a cool IMAX film called “Greece: Secrets of the Past”. It’s a professional, to the tune of $4 million, combination of aerial and close-up video along with digital re-creation of how the scenes appeared in ancient times. The result is visually stunning as well as educational. Ideal for know before you go.

Get your own DVD here:     

It is now Eurovision season—one of our annual highlights.  Last year’s post contains some background so please go here if you are not familiar with this European Song Contest.  It is nothing like American shows such as American Idol. 
http://parosparadise.blogspot.com/2008/05/expat-life-eurovision.html
This year’s broadcast comes from Moscow, which was last year’s winner.  The first round of preliminaries was Tuesday, the second round tonight, Thursday and the finals on Saturday.

We find it quite interesting that Turkey and Norway are running neck and neck with Greece a distant third.  Last years 100% telephone voting was extremely disgusting because of fans voting for their neighbours instead of the music.  So this year 50% of the votes come from a panel of judges.
We look forward a thrilling finale!
Update:  Alexander Rybak charmed the viewing universe and won by the greatest margin ever.  Norway was not our favourite; we liked both Iceland who came in second and Azerbaijan who placed third.  It was gratifying to see results based upon merit although regional voting was still noticeable.

This recent trip to the US reminded us how well we eat here in Greece. There are the obvious differences of locally grown vegetables and eggs as well as the more subtle difference in the preponderance of “packaged” or prepared food in the US, not to mention the fast food outlets on every major intersection.

There are regional cuisines in the US such as southern and tex-mex but even more so in Greece with a geographical area about the same as a mid-sized US state. Here the regional differences developed in ancient times when travel was limited. Now an organization has been created to promote the gastronomy of the Aegean islands. Their new web site is:

http://www.aegeancuisine.gr/

This group has also published a book by well known Greek cook, Diana Kohyla. It presents recipes and traditional products of the southern Greek islands.

Here on Paros our most successful workshop has been Greek Farmhouse Cooking with Eddy. He offers one day classes for the casual tourist as well as intensive three day sessions for the dedicated cook. Read more at

http://www.parosparadise.com/cooking.htm

So combine farm produce grown for taste rather than ease of transportation, traditional home recipes and motivated chefs and the result is well fed islanders and in my case a pot belly.

Of course we had some very good meals in the US as well. The exception that proves the rule is steak—here they do not age the meat or cut thick steaks. The photo is of New York strip steaks rubbed and grilled by our friend Andy at his home in Oregon.

We have been back on Paros since Thursday and now on Sunday we are nearly settled in and caught up.  Though things will never be the same as before we left at the end of March.

Not only do we each have new computers and a new device to watch computer downloads on our TV, we also have lots of new clothes and many items of our favourite foods.  For instance we can get peanut butter and maple syrup on Paros but only at speciality import stores and at “special” prices.  One delicacy that we can’t get here is Beaver Horseradish Sauce, a national brand made in our home town of Beaverton, Oregon.

The photo above is just a portion of our bounty.

The major surprise we received when we looked over our veranda was our artichoke crop.  We left large plants with no buds but returned to prolific bushes.  Along with fresh local beets they made a great lunch today, especially with a touch of Beaver Horseradish Sauce!

We were also pleasantly surprised with the abundance of blooming flowers around our house.  It’s good to be back.

(Please click on photos to enlarge.)