st demetrios greek festival

last weekend A. called me up asking if i wanted to go to st. demetrios. i replied, "for what?!?" every september st. demetrios (a greek church in montlake, btw), holds a greek festival as their major, annual fundraiser which includes food, music, dancing, a "this-and-that" shop, and other greek groceries. i thought it would be fun, so M., A., and i were off to soggy montlake in the rain.

as soon as we walked in, i purchased 30 tokens to use at all the different food stalls under the big top. M. and i started with dolmades, spanakopita, and a simple salad. everything was good, but nothing was superb. i didn't have super high expectations since i knew it was a fundraiser, and it would be food prep on a huge scale. i enjoyed the comforting grape leaves, tangy salad (high on the cheese quotient!), but the spanakopita was a little sad. it could have used a little bit of salt and a lotta bit of crispness. it was soggy, and that wasn't ideal, but it didn't stop me from finishing it, oh no.

A. got the souvlaki, which came with a little bun to eat the skewered lamb with. apparently there was a vat of oil and sauce that the server dipped the skewer in right before serving, and A. went back to the stall to ask for a little dish of that sauce. instead he returned with a bun dipped in the sauce. why? i'm not quite sure.

M. also tried the gyro (it was either that or a lamb sandwich). it looked pretty damn good. they had quite the machine of younger boys assembling those jammies with toasted pita, sauce, tomato, onion, and gyro patties.

right before we left, i had to snap a picture of the whole lamb they just put on the spit to roast. epic!

after we wandered around the church grounds for a little bit (A. bought a bag of olives and a block of cheese), we ended up at the dessert station. we went with the kataifi, which is basically a nest of phyllo threads wrapped around walnuts and sugar, then flooded with honey. i also chose the standard baklava, just because i had to. the baklava was intensely buttery, a little soft (i think in part due to the humidity), but the kataifi was insanely sweet. there was far too much syrup on the bottom, so i just avoided that part.

thanks for the greek tastes last weekend, st demetrios!